Essingeleden

Essingeleden is an urban motorway in Stockholm, she is part of the European Routes 4/20 and in 1966 opened to traffic. Essingeleden is after the two islands of Lake Mälaren, Lilla and Stora Essingen Essingen named, which are crossed by this city motorway.

History

The 1958 observed traffic overview plan for Stockholm saw a beltway around the city before, which should consist of the following sections: Essingeleden ( in the west), Norra Länken, Österleden and Södra Länken. From this ring exist for Z. Essingeleden only (completed 1966) and Södra Länken ( completed in 2004 ). Norra is länken for Z. (2008) under construction and scheduled to be inaugurated in 2015, during the realization of the Österleden that would lead through the National City Park, is still being discussed.

The construction

The Essingeleden was built during the years 1962 to 1966 and was at that time Sweden's largest road construction project. The six -kilometer section of Västberga in the south to the north Solna cost 240 million kroner, and it includes three major bridges, viaducts and a tunnel. During construction, Sweden decided to introduce the legal relations, which led to some connection points had to be rebuilt. On August 21, 1966, therefore, only the western carriageway was first inaugurated by the Prime Minister Tage Erlander and only in September 1967, all lanes of the highway were opened to traffic.

Essingeleden today

Essingeleden is the busiest road connecting Sweden. Beginning of 2000, passed here on average 120,000 vehicles per day in both directions and, following an expansion to four lanes in each direction, the quantity of vehicles amounted in 2007 to 150,000. This is beyond the capacity and leads to congestion at peak times. To relieve the Essingeleden been discussed for years a western ring road, which will lead past the traffic mainly in tunnels under the island Ekerö to the city. The so-called " pass- Stockholm " ( Förbifart Stockholm ) can be completed at the earliest and will cost about 2.7 billion euros, according to calculations from 2006 in 2020.