European route E4

Story

European route E 4 passes from north to south through Sweden from the border with Finland, with a total length of. The Finnish part lies entirely within Tornio in northern Finland, and is only 1km long. The Swedish part traverses most of Sweden except the extreme north and the west coast region, and is commonly considered the highway backbone of Sweden, since it passes in the vicinity of many of its largest cities and through the capital Stockholm. In particular, it is the mainline road used by most vehicle traffic, both personal cars and freight trailers, between the north (Norrland) and southern Sweden or beyond.From Haparanda on the Finnish border, it stretches south along the Gulf of Bothnia to Gävle, then on a more inland route southwards. It ends in Helsingborg in Sweden, at the port for the ferry to Elsinore in Denmark.History and namingUnder the new system of European routes it was planned to have been a part of E 55, but it remains in the pre-1992 designation (E 4) within Sweden, because the expenses connected with re-signing this long road portion would be too large. Besides the signs along the road, there are thousands of signs, especially in cities, showing how to reach the E 4 road. The road is now fully authorized as E 4 by the relevant authority, not as E 55.RouteNorth of Gävle the road is of mixed standard. Depending on the fashion at the time of construction it is either a single standard carriageway road, usually 8- wide, or a 2+1 road, a 13- wide road with two lanes in one direction and one in the other with a steel wire barrier in between, or sometimes a motorway with two lanes in each direction. North of Sundsvall, the road passes through several of the larger cities as city streets.