Five reasons why Manglerud needs a green lid

The Manglerud Tunnel is referred to as one of Oslo’s most enduring road conflicts. Now it may be time to consider another solution.

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The traffic machine at Manglerud has grown enormously. At most, 100,000 vehicles pass a day. The negative environmental consequences are serious, and the immediate area has long passed the tolerance limit for noise and pollution. Along Bryn, Høyenhall and Manglerud, the Norwegian Road Administration estimates that around 40,000 people are affected by the environmental pollution.

Is it perhaps time to consider a different solution than the Manglerud Tunnel, which has been in the plans for the past thirty years, and is referred to as one of Oslo’s most enduring road conflicts?

Obos and NCC have taken the initiative for a new and less expensive solution: to build a parking cover over the motorway at Manglerud. LINK is the architect behind the project. A park lid can give the district a long-awaited green lung, remove traffic noise and open the way for the construction of up to 700 new Obos homes. The traffic will be shielded from the local environment, and we will give the people a park and nature. In this way, we can improve the health-hazardous pollution and facilitate living quality, activity and natural diversity in the area.

Here are five good reasons why Manglerud needs a green lid.

Better quality of life for people in the local environment

A cover over the Manglerud traffic machine will significantly reduce noise and particulate matter for properties in the area. Oslo has the worst coverage of sports facilities in Norway and has fewer and fewer pockets of nature. With a green cover, large areas will be freed up for both sports and nature, with many health-promoting effects.

In addition to lush green surfaces and extensive pedestrian and cycle paths both across the ring road and along the route, the lid can be 40-50 meters wide with space for play, ball loops, exercise equipment and other activity surfaces in the district.

Will make a positive contribution to the housing crisis

Today, there are many parking lots along the road – properties of no particular value. Due to the noise and location, it is difficult to make better use of these plots. With a green cap, we can release underutilized plots of land into attractive residential areas, and contribute to reducing the housing crisis in Oslo.

The potential for future urban development along what could become one of the largest park areas in Oslo can contribute significantly to the high demand for new housing in our city. The entire district of Østensjø can get a solid boost.

The districts are better connected

Urban development in Oslo is largely based on the transformation of former industrial areas into housing, along ring roads and other heavily trafficked main roads. The roads make it difficult to create flow and contact between the new development areas on either side of the road. The green lid can be the key that unlocks these barriers and connects the districts better.

It is also a point that Planning and Building in the municipal plans have ambitions to strengthen a green axis with a connected walking path between Østensjøvannet and Svartdalen (Alna/Kværnerbyen). This is a pedestrian connection that is effectively stopped by the E18 today.

With the green lid on Manglerud, a direct connection can be established that solves this challenge, and at the same time creates a biological corridor between ecologically important areas. What has previously been a barrier can become a green connection for people, animals and plants.

Reuse will create biological diversity

Large quantities of limestone are taken out in connection with the development of the Fornebubanen. This is a rock that is not suitable as a filling material for the foundations of buildings or roads, and such materials are expensive to get rid of. Waste masses from, for example, Fornebu can be re-used for filling as a growing basis for parks and green areas on the green cover.

The calcareous shale can form the basis of life for an exceptionally high and threatened plant and insect diversity.

A cost-effective move

Ryen-Manglerud is in many ways an optimal stretch for the construction of green cover, because Ring 3 is sunken into the terrain on both sides. The cover can thus be easily established without major terrain interventions on adjacent properties. LINK Arkitektur has analyzed terrain elevations (height curves) also along other parts of Ring 3. Several stretches could be favorable for a green cover.

The construction principles are relatively simple, and the foundations can be solved by strip-wise foundations along the center axes and side axes of the roadway without the entire road having to be closed. In principle, it should be possible to solve it by closing only one lane at a time and thus minimally reducing access.

Constructions above ground/road are quickly lifted into place and mounted on the finished foundations. Replenishment of masses above the construction can be carried out while the road is in full use.

Can become a driving force

A green lid on Manglerud could become a driving force for nature- and climate-friendly urban development in Oslo. The project can ensure a robust urban environment that facilitates population growth and ensures a good balance between buildings, people and green lungs in a well-functioning infrastructure. A model project.