2024 

IABSE Norway arranged its yearly spring seminar on 22 May 2024 with a technical part followed by a construction site visit. The focus this year was the complexity in urban infrastructure projects subjected to heavy traffic in, and in the vicinity of the ongoing construction. The nearby ongoing construction projects of Fornebubanen and E18 Vestkorridoren were presented, and a site visit was performed on the latter.

Fornebubanen is a new major light rail underground project, located west of Oslo center consisting of an approximately 10 km line with 5 stations in urban areas. The design is at its peak level and construction is ongoing with major effort. Technical challenges from weak zones in rock, to a major construction site at the end station with a number of high-rise buildings on top were pointed out. Advanced execution by means of BIM/VDC and sustainability aspects was focused on as well. The presentation was given by COWI, design consultant in JV with Multiconsult.

E18 Vestkorridoren is the main traffic corridor to Oslo from west side. This is already the road in Norway with most heavy traffic, and this traffic is going right through the construction site. The project will move the main traffic underground and improve the conditions for local traffic, buses, bicycles and pedestrians at terrain. Also here, a large focus has been on BIM/VDC and it was nice to see this how the construction work was smoothened through careful planning of different construction stages and by means of temporary access/transportation bridges.

The presentations for this project were held by design consultant Aas-Jakobsen and contractor Skanska/M&D, which also hosted the site visit. The spring seminar also had a technical presentation of the status of timber truss bridges in Norway. Following the unfortunate collapse of Tretten Bridge in 2022, governing design rules has been changed and adapted to already existing timber bridges, resulting in planned demolation of several bridges as well as traffic limitations on others. The lecture was given by consultant Aas-Jakobsen. Some other ongoing bridge construction projects were also presented including the Kvelland FCM bridges presented by contractor Implenia and Langangen; the ILM Bridges presented by design consultant AFRY. The seminar was followed by somewhat 40 participants, and everybody had a great time in the perfect spring weather!

2023

IABSE Norway hosted their yearly spring seminar the 3 May in Trondheim.

The seminar was held in the premises of Statens Vegvesen. About 50 participants enjoyed presentations of ongoing local bridge projects in aluminium and steel as well as a presentation of the design and construction of the cable stayed bridge Nydalsbrua close to the premises.

It was also a presentation of the status of the Norwegian timber bridges after the unfortunate collapse of Tretten Bridge last year, as well as a sum up of the recent IABSE conference in Istanbul.

After the seminar, the group had a site visit tour on Nydalsbrua hosted by the site team from the designer and from Statens Vegvesen. The bridge construction is about to reach is maximum cantilever of the superstructure before closure, so it was a perfect time to visit!

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2021

IABSE Norway arranged a site visit the 27th October 2021 to Randselva Bridge. The visit was a joint effort with Norsk Betongforening, the Norwegian part of Fib. The visit was free of charge, and open to both members and others. About 30 persons participated in all.

Presentations were given from the owner Statens Vegvesen (NPRA) and the DB contractor (PNC Norge with consultants Sweco and Armando Rito) regarding the project, current status, BIM strategy etc.

The bridge is a 634m long concrete box girder bridge with a free cantilever main span of 200m on high piers. It is situated just north of Oslo, and is a part of the new highway E16 in the area.

After the presentations, the participants were guided though the bridge construction area involving a stair climb to the bridge deck 55m above ground, something several of the participants found a bit challenging.

The focus was on current status of the construction, the use of the advanced BIM goals set out, and to challenges experienced so far. The site visit was very successful and gave a very good state-of-the-art impression of modern bridge construction.

IABSE Norway organised a webinar the 26th May 2021 (photo above) with the title “BIM/VDC – status in Norway” for IABSE members in Norway as well as the Nordic countries. The webinar was free of charge, with 100 participants. Presentations were given from the all major infrastructure agencies in Norway as well as representatives from consultants, contractors and universities. The focus was on current status on BIM/VDC in bridge, road and railway projects in Norway and strategies for further development. State of the art projects were described and everybody gave an honest description of the benefits and also challenges we have seen with BIM and VDC so far. After the presentations, a debate was carried out, where participants could question and comment the various presentations. Norway has seen a rapid development within digitalization of the infrastructure market recent years due to the many largescale projects and the increasing level of BIM requirements from the