On 24 October, a passenger train was hit by a rock slide in Hemnes municipality. The train derailed and landed over the E6, which is the main road in Norway.
It remained there until Wednesday morning.
For two weeks, the alternative has been to drive via Sweden, or to drive the coastal road and take a ferry between Nesna and Levang. Due to storms, the ferry has occasionally been cancelled.
As a result, the country has occasionally been split in two – with no speed limit between them.
– We are fully aware of that, that it is easy to divide the country in two, says county emergency manager in Nordland, Asgeir Jordbru.
– Fully aware of the vulnerability
– We have a main road between north and south in the E6, and it is vulnerable to closure. But we are mostly used to that, he says, and points out that the E6 over Saltfjellet between Mo i Rana and Bodø is now and again closed due to storms – but for shorter periods.
– In this case, the road has now been closed for two weeks. There have been some openings at weekends, but there have been challenges. But then it is like that when it happened where it happened, there are detours via Sweden and ferries. But there are other places in the county where the detour options are much longer. This is something we are fully aware of, he says, and says they have carried out a risk and vulnerability analysis of a closed E6 in Sørfold – an incident which entails a seven-hour detour to Sweden or a long detour with ferries across the Vestfjorden, in the north of the county.
– It is much worse if something happens there, he says, and says he is happy that the state is now building a new road in Sørfold.
He believes the train derailment shows that they have good preparedness that works in such incidents.
– The county council is putting in extra ferries and relocating its resources. We also manage to relax customs restrictions quickly, in order to bypass Sweden.
– Do you have a plan for if the border is closed, or the ferry doesn’t run – and the country is divided in two for a long time?
– No, because E6 is long, and there are many places where you can break. Depending on where the break is, you have to deal with it in different ways, he says, and explains:
– Having a plan for all conceivable events is difficult. It’s about having a planning system that solves things in general, and for each individual incident, he says, and says that they have a good collaboration with other players who have a responsibility, such as the county council, the Norwegian Road Administration, the Truck Association and others. This means that they can quickly initiate preparedness – as the train accident shows.
– Is there a plan for conflict situations?
– I don’t know how deeply I should go into the details of that, but I can say that whether it is a conflict or what happened now, the case is largely the same. There is a break in a road axis, and it must be dealt with. In a conflict situation, there will be close cooperation with defense and their planning work on this, without going into detail on this, he says.
Not an unknown phenomenon
In Troms and Finnmark there is no railway, and closed roads are not an unknown phenomenon. The accident in Nordland has not changed anything in the emergency response work in the two northernmost counties.
– No, we are not unfamiliar with road connections being closed here in the north. It is of course a tragic accident that happened in Nordland, but in relation to the risk picture, it does not change anything for us, says emergency manager at the State Administrator in Troms and Finnmark, Ronny Schjelderup.
A blocked road is clearly a scenario in the emergency plans. The state administrator coordinates and brings together actors such as the Norwegian Road Administration, the police and the customs authority if the border must be used for detours.
– We have to assess social consequences based on where it is. Are there detours? Is it possible to use other types of means of access, for example a boat? Do you have to start thinking about air freight for certain things, says Schjelderup.
At the end of the supply line
– Are you extra vulnerable since Troms and Finnmark are at the very end of the supply line?
– When we are last in the renewal line, it is clear that there are many obstacles that can arise on the way up to us. We have changed the delivery of goods to Finnmark so that it goes via Finland and Sweden. We are not locked in if E6 disappears, but there is no doubt that E6 is incredibly important to us, he says.
The security situation has changed in the northernmost counties in recent years, and particularly in Finnmark, which has the border with Russia. According to Schjelderup, you face the same issues in a crisis situation. The consequences are largely the same.
– It is that we may not be able to get goods and services, or that the Armed Forces cannot move as quickly as they would like. If, for example, we get a broken road axis, then everything will be delayed. It becomes more difficult and more challenging, he says.
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