Kvarken Bridge

Kvarken Bridge (Swedish: "Kvarkenbron", Finnish: "Merenkurkun silta") is a proposed bridge across the strait of Kvarken. The cost of the bridge has been estimated to about 1.5-2 billion euros. There are islands in the strait, and the sum of the lengths of the probably three bridge parts would be about 40 km. The Swedish minister of finance has said it is an interesting idea, but the idea is still decades from being brought to fruition. There is a debate in the coastal cities on both sides, like Umeå and Vaasa. The official view from the Swedish and Finnish governments is that it is much too expensive. The natural values in the area also makes a bridge doubtful.

The working group for the bridge has proposed a three step programme:

# To ensure that there is a connection across the Kvarken.
# To build a ferry harbour on Replot, Korsholm, to shorten the current travel time of 6 hours to about 5.
# To build a bridge across the Kvarken.

The Swedish Västerbotten business owners' association intends to commission a report into the significance of a bridge for the development of the region. [http://virtual.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=17014&group=General]

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