Södra länken National road 75 (Riksväg 75), is a motorway in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 connecting Essingeleden

Essingeleden

Essingeleden is a motorway that goes from Solna to Stockholm, Sweden, crossing the westmost parts of central Stockholm, by going over Kungsholmen, Lilla Essingen, and Stora Essingen....

 (E4

European route E4

European route E 4 passes from north to south through Sweden from the border with Finland, total length . The Finnish part lies entirely within Tornio in northern Finland, and is actually only long...

, E20

European route E20

The European route E 20 is part of the United Nations International E-road network.It runs roughly west-east through Ireland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and finally Russia. The length is . The road is not continuous, at three points, a sea crossing is required. ...

), Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

 with Värmdöleden (county road 222), Nacka

Nacka

Nacka is the municipal seat of Nacka Municipality and part of Stockholm urban area in Sweden. The municipality's name harks back to an 16th century industrial operation established by the Crown at Nacka farmstead where conditions for water mills are good...

. Södra länken is 6 km in length, of which 4.7 km is in tunnels. This makes it the second longest urban motorway tunnel in Europe after Madrid M30 orbital motorway

Autopista de Circunvalación M-30

The M-30 orbital motorway circles the central districts of Madrid, the capital city of Spain. It is the innermost ring road of the Spanish city. Outer rings are named M-40, M-45 and M-50....

. The tunnel is 4 lanes wide each way at its widest point (total 8 lanes). The road has the designation national road

Swedish national road

Swedish national road , are roads with road numbers from 1 through 99 in Sweden. The national roads are usually of high quality and sometimes pass through several counties. Roads with lower numbers are in southern Sweden, and roads with higher numbers are in northern Sweden...

 75 (Riksväg 75).

The construction of Södra länken began in 1997, and was inaugurated on October 24, 2004. The total cost was about 7.9 billion SEK

Swedish krona

The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...

 (around 800-900 million USD

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

 at the 2003-2004 exchange rate). The link was built primarily to decrease traffic in the centre of Stockholm. Given the high construction costs and the possibility that overall traffic volumes might increase, it was one of the greatest subjects of debate during the 1990s and early 2000s in the Swedish capital. It was financed mainly with governmental money and is not a toll road. The reason for building it in a tunnel almost all the way is a law from the 1990s which more or less forbids construction of a new motorway (or similar road) near residential areas inside cities, for noise and pollution reasons.

Södra länken is part of the planned Stockholm ring road

Stockholm ring road

The Stockholm Ring Road is a half-completed ring road around central Stockholm, Sweden. There have been many plans over the years of a ring road around central Stockholm, but all of them have been cancelled at some point. , about half of the ring road is now built.-History:The first plan to build...

, with Södra länken being the southern section of it.

External links

• Flying under Stockholm — A youtube user called 'henke2' flew an electric model aircraft
  Model aircraft
  Model aircraft are flying or non-flying models of existing or imaginary aircraft using a variety of materials including plastic, diecast metal, polystyrene, balsa wood, foam and fibreglass...
  
  through the tunnel