Oslo traffic chaos sparks apology from road authorities

Severe traffic jams paralysed roads around Oslo on Saturday, leaving drivers stranded for hours as roadworks and tunnel closures compounded weekend congestion, Dagbladet reports.

Monica Lundstrøm, a resident of Oslo’s Nordstrand district, said her usual 90-minute drive to Strömstad, Sweden, took four hours. She criticised the lack of clear information on electronic road signs, arguing the system failed the capital’s 700,000 residents and the wider Østlandet region’s two million people.

“Children were crying in cars stuck in traffic,” Lundstrøm told the newspaper, calling for urgent improvements to the warning system.

Thomas Riis Østergaard, the construction site manager, admitted to VG that the disruptions exceeded expectations. “The queues were longer, and the traffic deviations were more extensive than we had anticipated. We regret the inconvenience,” he said.

Østergaard acknowledged that advance warnings had been inadequate. “We should have communicated the scale of Saturday’s work more clearly,” he said, adding that future notices would be more precise and widely distributed to media outlets.