Impacts on Land Use Characteristics from Fixed Link Projects: Four Case Studies from Norway

Abstract

Infrastructure projects with large increase in accessibility, often experience over- or underestimation in traffic volume prognosis. This has been the case in several fixed link projects in Norway. Fixed link projects replaces ferry services with a bridge or a tunnel, resulting in large time savings across the fjord. This paper investigates four fixed link projects in Norway. The fixed links connects islands to towns with a population of up to 50.000. This study investigates how land use is affected by the opening of a fixed link. Commuting patterns, population, housing prices and number of companies are analysed with the difference in difference method. Results show a growth due to the fixed link for two of the cases, while the other two experience small or no growth caused by the fixed link. The results indicate that land use changes might appear for islands, which get a fixed link connection to non-urban areas.