Stockholm ring road

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This article contains information about a planned or expected future road.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change as the road's construction or completion approaches and more information becomes available.

Essingeleden

Södra länken

Norra länken

Stockholm ring road (Swedish: Stockholms ringled) is a half-completed ring road around central Stockholm, Sweden. There have been many plans over the years of a ring road around central Stockholm, but all of them have been cancelled at some point. As of 2007, about half of the ring road is now built.

[edit] History

The first plan to build a motorway ring road around central Stockholm arose in 1950s. It would have had a bit different solutions and alignments compared to the latest plan, e.g. for the northern section a conversion of the Valhallavägen road to a city motorway, the eastern section on a high bridge, and the southern section would have been above ground.^{[citation needed]}

The latest ring road project in Stockholm has its origin in the Dennis Agreement (Dennisöverenskommelsen) from 1992, which was a political agreement to build new roads and improve the public transport in and around Stockholm. As the agreement was eventually broken in 1997 due to criticism from environmental groups and the political parties left outside the agreement, the future of a complete ring road became uncertain.^[1]

A possibility of a ring road being completed in an overseeable future arose in mid 2000s as the construction of the northern section resumed during 2006 with preparatory work, the final appeals opposing the construction were rejected on February 26, 2007 by the Supreme Administrative Court,^[2] and actual construction of the road resumed on May 11, 2007.^[3] A new feasibility study has been conducted on the eastern section, which is as of 2007 awaiting feedback from the County Administrative Board of Stockholm.^[4]

[edit] Road sections

There are four distinct sections of the planned ring road around Stockholm, of which two are completed, one in construction, and one under consideration.

Essingeleden, the western section — completion of various stages between 1966 and 1971.
Södra länken, the southern section — short section opened 1973, inauguration of the completed road 2004
Norra länken, the northern section — short section opened in 1991, construction of the rest halted in 1997, construction resumed 2006–2007,^[3]^[5] and the complete road is finished at earliest 2015.^[6]
Österleden, the eastern section — planning cancelled in 1997, new feasibility study completed in 2006.^[4] Estimates for construction start in 2020 and completion in 2030.^[7]