Monitoring sea and land for new tourist route in Olden

Filling in Nordfjord will secure a new walkway. It is being built from the cruise port towards Olden town centre. Cautus Geo is monitoring the pore pressure and water quality during the work.

Nordfjord Harbour will receive more than 100 large cruise ships with over 360,000 passengers during the summer season. Many tourists want to experience Birkedalsbreen and Fjærlandsbreen. Others want to do some shopping on land or go into Olden town centre. This calls for a safe and secure walkway. It is being built on rock fill along the county road.

Before Easter, Cautus Geo installed pore pressure gauges at various depths under the seabed. In the fjord, measuring buoys were established last autumn. The buoys monitor the water quality. This provides automatic and continuous monitoring with real-time analysis in Cautus Web. Alert limits are established that trigger alarms if undesirable things happen in the ground or in the sea.

Keeping tourists safe

Cruise tourists visiting Olden town centre currently have to walk on the county road. Now the walk will be secured with a new walkway. It will be established on rock fill.

25,000 cubic metres of rock will be excavated to establish the new walkway.

- We continuously monitor the pore pressure. 12 gauges are installed at various depths below the seabed. We also have turbidity meters out in the sea. These are in addition to the particle barrier with silt curtain. It's about controlling both the ground conditions and the water quality in the sea," says Sigmund Brekke Langelid of Cautus Geo.

Safe and secure

The contractor is Kveen Anlegg AS. The company will fill in masses and build the walkway. It also includes a small bridge. In addition, Kveen will establish two 200-tonne and one 100-tonne moorings for large cruise ships.

- "Continuous and automatic monitoring provides peace of mind. If something happens in the ground, we're alerted and can stop work and assess measures," says Lars Helge Kveen.

- "We're following the scheduled progress plan. The new 330-metre walkway along the fjord will be ready for use in the spring of next year," says Kveen.

Major investments

The developer is Nordfjord Harbour. It is an inter-municipal port that includes the harbour in Måløy. It is the country's fourth largest fishing harbour, but also a cruise port in Olden.

The Port of Nordfjord has a major investment programme of over NOK 900 million up to 2036. Over the next few years, more than NOK 250 million will be spent on a new pedestrian walkway, as well as expansion and upgrades, including charging power at the quayside facility at Olden. The new walkway will provide tourists with a safe route parallel to the county road into the city centre.

Equipment in the project

• 12 pore pressure gauges are installed at various depths under the seabed.
• Two measuring buoys for monitoring water quality.
• CL3 logger controls data collection.
• Cautus Web, cloud solution for insights with automatic notification.