Bjorøy

Historie

Bjorøyna or Bjorøy is an island in Fjell municipality in Hordaland county, Norway. The 4.1km2 island is located south of the island of Litlesotra, west of the Bergen Peninsula, north of the island of Tyssøyna, and east of the island of Sotra.Bjorøy is connected to the mainland city of Bergen by a subsea road tunnel called the Bjorøy Tunnel. It is also connected to the small island of Tyssøy in neighboring Sund municipality by a bridge. Bjorøy has 878 inhabitants (September 2012), and several hundred vacation cabins.HistoryDue 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 cap that only allowed ten new houses to be built on the island per year. The purpose was to ensure that the population growth did not surpass the growth of drinking water availability and kindergarten capacity (among other things), but the cap proved to be ineffective.GeographyBjorøy is located in the Raunefjorden between the island of Store Sotra and Bergen. Although Bjorøy is connected only to Bergen by road, the island is part of Fjell municipality. To get to the rest of Fjell, Bjorøy's residents must drive north into Bergen, then west over a bridge to get back to Fjell. To the south of Bjorøy is the smaller island of Tyssøy which is part of the municipality of Sund. Tyssøy is connected to Bjorøy by a bridge which is in turn connected to Bergen by a tunnel. Residents of Tyssøy who want to drive to the rest of their own municipality, they must take a 30km long drive through Fjell, Bergen, Fjell, and then into Sund.