Íslenska

Thoroddur Bjarnason

Professor of Sociology at the University of Iceland

Transport and regional development
Research project: Fjallabyggð before the Héðinsfjörður Tunnel

In 2006 work began on a tunnel between Ólafsfjörður and Siglufjörður through Héðinsfjörður, and the same year Ólafsfjörður and Siglufjörður merged into the municipality of Fjallabyggð. For a long time both communities had faced decline in primary industries and significant population loss, reducing quality of life in the area. The tunnel was expected to reverse this trend and was a main justification for the substantial investment. Assessments of the expected social impacts argued that the tunnel would strengthen the Eyjafjörður region as a growth area and as a counterweight to the capital region. The tunnel would also create a continuous labor market area from Akureyri to Siglufjörður with over 20,000 inhabitants. This could lead to more diverse jobs and lower unemployment, higher wages, lower prices, and more varied retail and services, as well as new opportunities in tourism in North Iceland. In the longer term, the tunnel was expected to have broad effects on society, culture, and lifestyle in the northern part of the Tröllaskagi peninsula.

The research project Transport improvements and regional development: social, economic, and cultural impacts of the Héðinsfjörður tunnel on communities in northern Tröllaskagi, funded by the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration Research Fund, aimed to provide a comprehensive assessment of Fjallabyggð and the changes expected in transport patterns, settlement trends, the economy, public services, and social capital following the opening of the tunnel. It also aimed to strengthen the academic basis for evaluating the societal impacts of tunneling projects in Iceland more generally.

Thoroddur Bjarnason, then Professor of Sociology at the University of Akureyri (HA), led the project. The following specialists were part of the research team during 2009–2015:

The book Fjallabyggð fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng (2011)
Bókin Fjallabyggð fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng
Fjallabyggð fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng: Samgöngur, samfélag og byggðaþróun.
  • Samgöngubætur og byggðaþróun á norðanverðum Tröllaskaga — Þóroddur Bjarnason og Kolbeinn Stefánsson. Bls. 4
  • PART I: TRANSPORT
  • Umferð á norðanverðum Tröllaskaga: Erindi og áfangastaðir vegfarenda — Jón Þorvaldur Heiðarsson, Kjartan Ólafsson, Sveinn Arnarsson og Þóroddur Bjarnason. Bls. 16
  • Umferðarspá fyrir Héðinsfjarðargöng — Jón Þorvaldur Heiðarsson. Bls. 30
  • Ferðamenn í Fjallabyggð sumarið 2009 — Edward Huijbens. Bls. 38
  • PART II: SETTLEMENT AND POPULATION CHANGE
  • Búsetuþróun í Fjallabyggð 1929–2009 — Þóroddur Bjarnason, Kjartan Ólafsson og Kolbeinn H. Stefánsson. Bls. 50
  • Föst búseta og hlutabúseta í Fjallabyggð — Kjartan Ólafsson og Þóroddur Bjarnason. Bls. 58
  • Búsetufyrirætlanir íbúa Fjallabyggðar — Þóroddur Bjarnason. Bls. 65
  • PART III: ECONOMY IN FJALLABYGGÐ
  • Atvinnulíf og samgöngur í Fjallabyggð — Kolbeinn H. Stefánsson. Bls. 72
  • Áhrif samgöngubóta á fasteignamarkað sérstaklega afskekktra byggðarlaga — Vífill Karlsson. Bls. 82
  • Viðhald samfélags? Hlutverk frístundahúsaeigenda í samfélögum á jaðarsvæðum — Edward H. Huijbens. Bls. 93
  • Áhrif hagsveiflna á atvinnustig afskekktra landsvæða á Íslandi — Vífill Karlsson. Bls. 106
  • PART IV: GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC SERVICES
  • Sveitarfélagið Fjallabyggð og Héðinsfjarðargöng — Grétar Þór Eyþórsson. Bls. 116
  • Starfsemi ríkis og sveitarfélags í Fjallabyggð — Grétar Þór Eyþórsson, Arnbjörg Pétursdóttir og Martha Elena Laxdal. Bls. 125
  • Heilbrigðisþjónusta í Fjallabyggð — Sonja Stelly Gústafsdóttir, Sigríður Halldórsdóttir og Kristjana Fenger. Bls. 133
  • Skólamál í Fjallabyggð — Grétar Þór Eyþórsson. Bls. 147
  • PART V: COMMUNITIES IN FJALLABYGGÐ
  • Félagslegur auður Fjallabyggðar — Kolbeinn H. Stefánsson og Sveinn Arnarsson. Bls. 152
  • Kynferði og samgöngubætur — Þóra Kristín Þórsdóttir og Kjartan Ólafsson. Bls. 161
  • Nokkur orð um mikilvægi þess að fá að sofa heima hjá sér — Björn Þorláksson. Bls. 170
Peer-reviewed articles
  • Special issue on the project: Íslenska þjóðfélagið – special issue on Fjallabyggð and the Héðinsfjörður Tunnel
  • Þóroddur Bjarnason. 2021. Tunnelling the Peninsula of Trolls: A case study of road infrastructure improvement and demographic dynamics in Northern Iceland. European Countryside, 13(2), 368–387. doi.org/10.2478/euco-2021-0023
  • Sonja Stelly Gústafsdóttir, Kristjana Fenger Sigríður Halldórsdóttir og Þóroddur Bjarnason. 2017. Social justice, access and quality of healthcare in an age of austerity: Users' perspective from rural Iceland. International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 76:1. doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2017.1347476
  • Þóroddur Bjarnason. 2015. Samgöngur og byggðaþróun: Samfélagsleg áhrif Héðinsfjarðarganga. Íslenska þjóðfélagið, 6, 5–36.
  • Sonja Stelly Gústafsdóttir, Kristjana Fenger, Sigríður Halldórsdóttir og Þóroddur Bjarnason. 2015. Heilbrigðisþjónusta Fjallabyggðar: Viðhorf íbúa í kjölfar mikilla samfélagsbreytinga. Íslenska þjóðfélagið, 6, 37–51.
  • Þóroddur Bjarnason. 2014. The effects of road infrastructure improvement on work travel in Northern Iceland. Journal of Transport Geography, 41, 229–238. doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2014.09.009
  • Þóroddur Bjarnason og Edward H. Huibens. 2014. Stefna íslenskra stjórnvalda og vöxtur ferðaþjónustu á jaðarsvæðum: Áhrif Héðinsfjarðarganga í Fjallabyggð. Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla, 10, 567–581. doi.org/10.13177/irpa.a.2014.10.2.18
  • Þóroddur Bjarnason og Kjartan Ólafsson. 2014. Skammtímaáhrif Héðinsfjarðarganga á mannfjöldaþróun í Fjallabyggð. Íslenska þjóðfélagið, 5, 25–48.
  • Edward H. Huijbens. 2012. “Sustaining a Village’s Social Fabric?” Sociologia Ruralis, 52(3), 332–352. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9523.2012.00565.x
Other research on transport and regional development
  • Þóroddur Bjarnason, Jón Þorvaldur Heiðarsson, Guðný Rós Jónsdóttir. 2023. „Beint flug er næs“: Svæðisbundin áhrif millilandaflugs frá Akureyri. Íslenska þjóðfélagið, 14, 87–106.
  • Þóroddur Bjarnason og Sigríður Elín Þórðardóttir. 2018. Vinnusókn til höfuðborgarsvæðisins frá öðrum byggðarlögum á Suðvesturlandi. Tímarit um viðskipti og efnahagsmál, 15(2), 97–114. doi.org/10.24122/tve.a.2018.15.2.6
  • Þóroddur Bjarnason og Sveinn Arnarsson. 2012. Slys á hættulegustu vegum landsins. Læknablaðið, 98, 103–108. doi.org/10.17992/lbl.2012.02.416