Bjorøy is an island in Fjell municipality, Hordaland, Norway. Located south of Litlesotra, Bjorøy is connected to Bergen by a subsea road tunnel, Bjorøytunnelen. It is also connected to the small island of Tyssøy in Sund municipality by a bridge. Bjorøy has approximately 500 inhabitants,[1] and several hundred cabins.[2]
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Due to its favourable location, proximity to Bergen, and the construction of the tunnel, the island has in recent years been seeing strong population growth. To prevent uncontrolled development, a building ban was instituted in 2007 but was later removed. The ban was instituted after a non-legally binding roof on ten new houses per year, whose purpose was to ensure that the population growth did not surpass the growth of drinking water availability and kindergarten capacity, among other things, proved ineffective.[3][4]
Bjorøy is located in the Raunefjord between the island of Store Sotra and Bergen. Although Bjorøy is connected only to Bergen by any means, the island is part of Fjell municipality. To its south is the smaller island of Tyssøy in Sund municipality, connected to Bjorøy by a bridge.
The subsea tunnel Bjorøytunnelen was opened in 1996, replacing the ferry between the island and Alvøen in Bergen. Plans for a tunnel connecting Bjorøy with Bergen were presented in the late 1980s.[5] By the early 1990s, the island's population had been decreasing for several years, and the sole grocery store on the island closed in 1991.[2] In 1993, the Norwegian government approved the plans for the tunnel, and construction began the same year.[1][6] The construction of the tunnel proved challenging: the bedrock quality was worse than anticipated. Delayed by almost a year, the tunnel finally opened on 7 May 1996.[7]