Sørøya II

On the north Norwegian island Sørøya, above the main road from Hasvik to Sørvær, SPIDER Avalanche® Barriers were installed in 2019 to protect this remote - and touristic - road from rockfall and avalanches.

The island of Sørøya is situated north of Tromsø, north of the arctic polar circle. Though touristic in summer, it takes many hours to get there. The barriers of high-tensile steel are not only exposed to rockfall in summer and avalanches in winter, they are also close to the sea. This means corrosion is a permanent threat.

The Norwegian authorities requested a solution to monitor and report impacts or slow filling of the barriers. They also are interested in knowing about any corrosive effects the nearby Barents Sea is having on the barriers - not an average calculation, but reality time measurements at on these barriers.

In the first phase, three GUARD monitoring devices were placed in different locations within the barrier field. An early finding was that corrosion is significantly higher at the barriers close to the sea than those further up the slope. These, are more frequently and more severely affected by rockfall, for example the barrier shown on the top-left edge of the picture below where one of the GUARDs is on duty.

Today authorities can use data to decide when measures at the barriers are to be taken. In this way inspection trips can be reduced and maintenance works can be bundled. More importantly, safety increases since assessments can be taken when an event is reported by the GUARD.