Residents report damage on Hróarstungu road riddled with potholes
Monday 10th August 2026 on 11:30 in
Iceland
Residents say the badly potholed Hróarstungu road, a gravel road in eastern Iceland, is causing vehicle damage, while the municipality and the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration point to each other for responsibility, mbl.is reports.
Auðdís Tinna Hallgrímsdóttir, a resident of Hallfreðarstaðir 1 in Hróarstunga, recently criticised the road’s condition in a Facebook group for residents of Fljótsdalshérað. She said the road had become so difficult for ordinary passenger cars that motorists could suffer sudden damage, including burst tyres.
“This has become a rather tiring issue,” Tinna said, adding that many younger residents were now taking over farms from their parents and grandparents and were less willing to accept the situation.
The road was graded earlier this summer, but Tinna said it quickly returned to its previous condition. “The summer winter was over and it had turned into a horrible washboard, and 15 minutes later everything was back in the same state,” she said.
She said the municipality of Múlaþing referred residents to the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration, while the road authority referred them back to the municipality. “It just goes around in a circle and they are hoping people will give up,” she said.
About 80 people live in Hróarstunga, but Tinna said many more use the road. Dozens or hundreds of vehicles pass through it, including visitors travelling north during the Bræðslan music festival and continuing to Borgarfjörður eystri. Foreign tourists also use the route during the summer, while the Lagarfoss power station is located close to her home.
After Tinna posted about the road on Facebook, she said she received numerous messages from people who had suffered serious damage to their vehicles while driving along it. She said repeated grading was not a solution and called for the road to be paved.
“This should simply have a paved surface,” Tinna said. She called for improvements on behalf of herself and other residents in the district.