Karl Olsen was a Norwegian civil servant.

He was born in Farsund

Farsund

is a town and municipality in the county of Vest-Agder, Norway.The town of Farsund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 , although already recognized as a trading center in 1795...

, and graduated as siv.ing.

Sivilingeniør

Sivilingeniør used to be a Norwegian university degree protected by Norwegian law issued to graduates from technical universities. To qualify for the title, you had to follow a structured study programme in technology and natural sciences of 4,5 - 5 years duration at a Norwegian university or...

 from the Norwegian Institute of Technology

Norwegian Institute of Technology

The Norwegian Institute of Technology, known by its Norwegian abbrevation NTH was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 85 years, after which it was merged into the University of Trondheim as an independent...

. From 1962 to 1980 he served as director of the Norwegian Directorate of Public Roads. Before this he worked in the administration of Bærum

Bærum

is a municipality in Akershus county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Sandvika. Bærum was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. A suburb of Oslo, Bærum is located on the west coast of the city....

 municipality. From 1952 to 1956 he was president of the Norwegian Association of Civil Engineers, an organization now known as Tekna

Tekna (Norway)

Tekna is a union for graduate technical and scientific professionals in Norway.It was established in 1874 under the name Den Norske Ingeniør- og Arkitektforening . In 1912 it was reorganized as Den Norske Ingeniørforening...

.