Farris Bridge by Bjørn Normann jr. Via Flickr: The Farrisbrua (Farris Bridge) is a major new road bridge crossing the Farris water just north of Larvik, Norway. The bridge is part of the expansion of the E18 motorway from the antiquated single carriageway to modern dual carriageway standards, enabling increased speeds and traffic volumes between the eastern and southern parts of the country. It was built between 2013 and 2018, to a cost of 718 million NOK (excl. VAT). Farrisbrua is 570 m in length and 28 m wide. It goes in a horizontal curve around the southern bank of the Farris water. Mainly built in concrete, the 120 meter middle section is a cable-stayed bridge in steel with concrete towers 70 meters tall. The bridge also has a slight incline from the east to the west, up to the tunnel in Martineåsen. The bridge's biggest foundation is that of the tower. This foundation is made of 12 pillars, steel tubes measuring 2 meters in diameter, drilled through the moraine masses down to bedrock, then filled with armour and concrete. The depth down to bedrock is around 80 meters. On top of these pillars, a concrete plate was made, 4 meters thick and covering 0,247 acres. There are also 9 smaller foundations varying in size. Farris is a 20 km long fresh water moraine-dammed lake near the Norwegian coastal town Larvik. The lake would have been a salt water fjord had it not been dammed by an end moraine left by the latest ice age. Farris is drinking water reservoir for some 170,000 people. The largest island in the lake is Bjørnøya.
