Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus, is suspending some roadworks in the face of drastically increasing prices for granite, gravel, asphalt and other materials.
Aarhus, on the Jutland peninsula and around 187km northwest of the capital Copenhagen, has a road construction budget of €60.5 million for 2022. Around 27 projects worth about €6.7 million are likely to be stopped, according to Steen Stavnsbo, city’s councilor for technology and the environment.
Stavnsbo expects prices to rise around 30 per cent this year.
Meanwhile, the Danish parliament has passed the Construction Act which will allow for the upgrading of the E4 motorway between Vejle, a town of around 60,000, and Skanderborg with a population of 20,000. Expansion work from four to six lanes on the 38km stretch is due to be completed by the end of 2026.
Earlier this year, a study was published that suggested construction of a fixed link spanning Denmark’s Kattegat Strait would be viable. The cost of the project would as much as US$17.1 billion however. The proposals call for a bridge from Jutland to the island of Samsø, with another bridge then connecting Samsø to Zealand. The bridges would carry both a highway and rail lines, connecting on Samsø Island.
