Motorväg road sign

Sweden has a fairly limited system of motorways (motorväg in Swedish). The first motorway (Malmö–Lund) was opened in 1953. The motorways' primary purpose is connecting major cities to their surrounding areas, although there is a long-term ambition to connect Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö with motorways.

With the completion of a couple of new motorway stretches in 2006 - 2015 an interconnecting motorway network exists from Öresund Bridge (to Denmark) to the Swedish- Norwegian border and to Gävle north of Stockholm.

There are also a number of motortrafikleder (semi-motorways, autostrasse), roads with only 2 or 3 (2+1) lanes but to which the same conditions apply as to motorways (i.e. grade-separated crossings, no slow traffic). These can be converted to motorways by adding a parallel road.

This is a complete listing of motorways in Sweden. The Swedish road numbering scheme does not distinguish between motorways and other types of roads.

The speed limit on motorways is generally 110 or 120 km/h (68 or 75 mph). Speed limits of 70 and 90 km/h are often used on urban motorways, and electronic signs can show a lower limit in bad weather.

List of current motorways

Map of Swedish motorways

Motorways without numbers

The numbers of these roads belong to secondary categories, that do not appear on signs and regular maps:

Note that there are more semi-motorways in Sweden, but they have not been considered interesting, since those do not connect to motorways.

Long-term goals

There are long-term goals in the standard of the major roads, and all new constructed roads should follow this target standard. This target has varied over the years, therefore roads varies somewhat randomly in standard. A bad road has been rebuilt to the target standard of the time, while better roads have been kept as is, even though they didn't fulfill the target standard. This is especially noticeable on the E18.

  • E4
Helsingborg-Gävle: motorway
Gävle-Haparanda: probably narrower motorway or semi-motorway all the way. Dual carriageways close to some cities. The existing semi-motorways will mostly be kept.
  • E6
Motorway all the way, finished in 2015.
  • E18
Segmon-Norrtälje: motorway all the way, maybe some semi-motorway in Värmland. Norway-Segmon: semi-motorwaylike with some crossings in level.
  • E20
Gothenburg-Vara: motorway
Vara-Vretstorp: either motorway or semi-motorway.
Vretstorp-Stockholm: motorway
  • E22
Trelleborg-Karlskrona: motorway. The existing semi-motorways within Blekinge will be kept, but those within Skåne are planned to be rebuilt.
Karlskrona-Söderköping: 2+1 semi-motorway, but it will take long time before it is built.
Söderköping-Norrköping: motorway
  • 40
Gothenburg-Ulricehamn: motorway
Ulricehamn-Jönköping: semi-motorway. Since 2015 there are dual carriageways all the way with several crossings in level, which are planned to be rebuilt on long term.

Electric vehicles

Sweden, which has pioneered electrified roads through several pilot projects including the world's first temporary electric road, will turn the E20 into a permanent electrified road, the first of its kind in the world. Jan Pettersson, Director of Strategic Development at Trafikverket, the Swedish transport administration, said: "We think the electrification solution is the way forward for decarbonising the transport sector and we are working with a number of solutions."[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Sweden plans to build the world's first permanent e-road by 2025". euronews. 2023-05-09. Retrieved 2023-07-07.

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