Two Chinese companies, two Norwegian, one Spanish-Norwegian, and one French are all in the running.

The competition to build the tunnel was announced in November last year, ahead of a deadline for requests to participate of 31 January this year. The six companies that expressed an interest are:

• A joint venture between Skanska Norge and Vassbakk og Stol (Norway)
• AF Gruppen Norge (Norway)
• A joint venture between PowerChina International Group, Sichuan Road and Bridge Corporation, Sinohydro Bureau 7, PowerChina Huadong Engineering (China)
• Eiffage G茅nie Civil (France)
• A joint venture between China Road and Bridge Corporation, CCCC Second Highway Engineering Co, CCCC Highway Consultants Co. (China)
• A joint venture between Acciona Construcci贸n and Bertelsen og Garpestad (Spain/Norway)

The ship tunnel will cross the narrowest point of the Stad Peninsula between the Moldefjord and Kj酶depollen, in the Vanylvsfjord. It will be 1.7km long, 50 metres high, and 36 metres wide, allowing vessels to safely navigate past Stadlandet where there has been a series of shipping accidents over the years.

The Norwegian Coastal Administration (Kystverket) said the construction of the tunnel will take the form of a design-build contract with prequalification and negotiations.

It will now review all the bidders鈥� documents to see if they meet the qualification requirements.

Stad ship tunnel project manager Harald Inge Johnsen said the number of expressions of interest indicated healthy competition between bidders.

鈥淲e previously stated that we would invite three to five bidders from this prequalification round to submit their offers. However, we must first thoroughly evaluate the applications before determining the final number of participants and, most importantly, which bidders will advance,鈥� he added.

Kystverket aims to complete the evaluation process by March and the best qualified contractors and joint ventures will then be invited to submit bids. The bids will be evaluated and negotiated, often through multiple rounds, before the best offer is selected based on the award criteria.

The contract could be signed by autumn 2025 with construction starting in early 2026, provided bids are received within the project鈥檚 budget framework.

Construction is expected to take five years.