European route E6

European route E6 (Europavei 6, Europaväg 6, or simply E6) is the main north-south thoroughfare through Norway as well as the west coast of Sweden. It is 3056 km long and runs from the southern tip of Sweden at Trelleborg, into Norway and through almost all of the country north to the Arctic Circle and Nordkapp. The route ends in Kirkenes close to the Russian border.

Route
From south to north, the E6 runs through Trelleborg, Malmö, Helsingborg, Halmstad, Gothenburg, Svinesund in Sweden, before crossing the border at the Svinesund Bridge into Norway. It then passes Halden, Sarpsborg, Moss, Vestby to the capital Oslo. North of this, it passes by Gardermoen, Hamar, Lillehammer, Dombås, Oppdal, Melhus to Trondheim.

Beyond Trondheim, the E6 meets Stjørdalshalsen, Verdalsøra, Steinkjer, Grong, Mosjøen, Mo i Rana, then over the Saltfjellet mountains. It then passes through Rognan, Fauske, and Hamarøy towards Bognes, where there is a ferry crossing over the Tysfjorden to Skarberget. It then runs through on via Narvik, Setermoen, Nordkjosbotn, Skibotn, and Alta to Olderfjord, where European route E69 continues north towards Nordkapp. The E6, meanwhile, turns south towards Lakselv and Karasjok, then runs on the west bank of the Anarjohka, which forms the border with Finland. Beyond the border, it passes through Varangerbotn, and Kirkenes, where the road terminates just east of the town center.

Between Trelleborg and Kirkenes, there is a more than 800 km shorter route using E4 and E75, among the longest detour any European route has. In Finnmark there are several shorter alternative routes to the E6. Moreover, on the stretch from Oslo to Trondheim, following E6 strictly is a 40 km detour compared to using Norwegian National Road 3 or Norwegian National Road 4 for their applicable portions of the trip.

Features
The road is a 2+2 lane motorway from outside Trelleborg to Moelv, about 740 km. The last Swedish part of the E6 motorway through Bohuslän was completed in 2015. This motorway is also connected to Central Europe by uninterrupted motorway (via E20). Some stretches further north also have four lanes or motorway standard. The rest of the road is usually 6–10 m wide ordinary road. Some parts in the north of Norway are less than 6 m wide, making it very tight when heavy vehicles meet. The northern half of the road, north of Trondheim, is also often fairly curvy, making high speeds a possible safety hazard.

E6 passes over treeless mountain passes in a few places in Norway. In the winter, bad weather and snow storms can cause the road to be temporarily closed, though, unlike many minor roads, it is kept open wherever practical. Because the road is the main artery through the country, cyclists and leisure travellers avoid the southern sections owing to the excessive traffic. In the north, traffic is sparse.

There are more than 100 electronic tolls on the Norwegian stretch of E6 between Svinesund and Narvik. This system is based on the assumption that every road user has a credit card and a smartphone to register their vehicle at www.Autopass.no, a website owned by the Norwegian national road administration. There is no place or way to pay for your tolls with cash money. It is also not possible to evade toll sections by taking smaller parallel roads. Quite a lot of foreign visitors to Norway do not understand how roads that are not motorways can even be toll roads. Others are complaining that the Norwegian road toll system works like a trap, because the amount of road toll in cities like Oslo and Trondheim tends to depend on multiple factors, like time of travelling and emission category of the vehicle, making it impossible to predict the exact price of a road trip from the Swedish border at Svinesund till Nordkapp (North Cape). Scammers have been reported to jump on the bandwagon, by sending fake toll bills, to obtain credit card information. Increasing road tolls were also the reason for a large protest in several cities in Norway in 2018 and 2019. Norwegian authorities refuse to comment on the number of fines for unpaid tolls that they cannot collect.

History and future plans
This road was called E6 in the old "E" road system before 1975 and previously continued to Rome (introduced in Sweden 1962 and in Norway 1965).

It was given the number E47 (but not signposted) in the new system on most of the Scandinavian part (Helsingborg–Olderfjord), and E6 only for the northernmost 460 km (from Olderfjord in Finnmark). After a political negotiation, the whole part passing through Scandinavia was given the number E6 in the new system, introduced in Scandinavia in 1992. The part Trelleborg-Helsingborg was never intended to be part of E47. E47 connects to E4 at the Helsingør-Helsingborg ferry, and E4 and E6 connect just outside Helsingborg.

The E6 became a 4-lane motorway all the way from Trelleborg to Kolomoen (near Hamar) in 2015, although the road is sometimes wider. The new Svinesund Bridge opened in 2005, replacing an earlier and narrower bridge from 1946.

Between 2012 and 2018, the road was shortened by 39 km between Narvik and Alta, by building the Hålogaland Bridge and more bridges and tunnels.

The 60 km road between Moelv and Øyer is under conversion to a 4-lane motorway, set to be finished around 2025.

In Trøndelag, several sections north and south of Trondheim are under construction, or planned as motorways. This project is planned to be 106 km long and it will go from the junction with Norwegian National Road 3 at Ulsberg in the south to Åsen north of Trondheim Airport, Værnes, set to be finished in 2027/2028. It will be financed by the state owned company Nye Veier.

On 8 June 2022, a damaged fairly short bridge (at Badderen), that resulted in a 163 km detour between Tromsø and Alta, got a temporary bridge installed (over the damaged bridge) after a week interruption.

Landslide near Stenungsund
On 23 September 2023, a large landslide destroyed a section of about 700 m of the highway, near Stenungsund, north of Gothenburg. The landslide also destroyed the local road, a fuel station and a fast food restaurant. Parked trucks got trapped in crevasses around the fuel station. In February 2024, the Swedish Transport Administration announced plans to have the motorway rebuilt and reopened by the end of 2024. By the end of June 2024 the reopening of E6 motorway was announced for the morning of the 5th of July 2024, several months ahead of the previous schedule. Shortly before King Carl XVI Gustaf arrived to cut the ribbon on Wednesday the 3rd of July 2024, a truckload of rotting salmon was cleared away from the site of the landslide.