New Hornafjörður road tolls to start on September 1

Toll collection on the new road over Hornafjarðarfljót will begin on September 1, mbl.is reported. A single journey will cost 1,500 Icelandic krónur, with lower rates for drivers making more trips during the month.

The maximum charge will be 18,750 krónur per vehicle per month, or 225,000 krónur per year. Heavier vehicles will pay more.

Hjalti Þór Vignisson, mayor of Hornafjörður, welcomed the transport improvement but said it was unreasonable that the single-trip charge was three times higher than the planned 495-króna toll for the new Ölfusá bridge. He called on the government to intervene and review the fee.

Infrastructure Minister Eyjólfur Ármannsson said the final toll for the Ölfusá bridge had not yet been decided. He said he understood the concerns raised by people in Hornafjörður, but argued that the two projects were not entirely comparable.

The minister said the benefit of shortening the national road at Hornafjarðarvegur was greater than that of the new Ölfusá bridge. The new road cuts the route by 12 kilometres, while drivers who currently take a detour through Selfoss will save time, fuel, vehicle wear and mileage costs. The route between Mýrar in Hornafjörður and Höfn will also be shortened by up to 14 kilometres.

Residents say the road serves the local community

Vignisson said the Road and Coastal Administration had told him that the toll was calculated not only from the savings in time and fuel, but also from the estimated number of journeys across the new road section.

He said the roughly 3,000 residents of Hornafjörður were effectively being charged because of the municipality’s small population. He considered that unfair because people in Mýrar and Suðursveit rely on Höfn for services, public administration and education. The road was therefore, in practice, a local road, he said. The nearest school to the west is in Öræfasveit, about 100 kilometres from Höfn.

Vignisson said the new road would bring significant benefits in both directions. Economic activity linked to tourism is growing in the surrounding communities, and people from Höfn, for example, travel to work at Jökulsárlón, which is becoming a larger workplace.

Ármannsson said the project would not have been carried out as quickly without toll collection, describing the tolls as essential to the project.

Tolls authorised for 30 years

Vignisson said he did not oppose toll collection, which had always been part of the plan, but that people had expected lower charges.

The project is the Road and Coastal Administration’s first public-private partnership established under specific legislation. It cost about 10 billion krónur and was carried out with Spölur ehf., which will manage the toll collection.

The tolls are authorised for 30 years and are intended to finance up to half of the project, which includes four two-lane bridges. The new Ölfusá bridge is covered by the same legislation, and its final cost is now expected to be about 18 billion krónur. The Sundabraut road project is also covered by the legislation.

Mayor says the old road may be cheaper

“We were shocked when the amount was announced. No matter how I calculate it, it seems cheaper for people to take the old road. The only saving is time. You would have to make quite a few trips across Hornafjörður for this to pay off,” Vignisson said.

The government held a summer meeting in Höfn earlier this year, where the issue was discussed with the municipal council.