De ringweg (B&W)

Lex Schulte about De ringweg (B&W)

The ring road, also called road number 1, is the road that runs through Iceland as a circle. This photo was made at the southern coast in the vicinity of Skaftafell. The Route 1, also known as the Þjóðvegur 1 or the Hringvegur is a main road in Iceland. The road forms a complete ring road around the island and is the longest road in the country with a length of 1,342 kilometers. Route 1 starts and ends in the capital Reykjavík. This part of the route is best developed. Part of this route is a de-facto highway, with 2x2 lanes and uneven floors. This highway connects the center of Reykjavík with the eastern neighborhoods and is 7 kilometers long. The Route 1 is only part of the eastern part of this highway, and only runs through the eastern districts of Reykjavík. The road then runs south-east to the city with 1x2 or 2 + 1 lanes and a few uneven floors. The area in Reykjavík is mainly bare tundra. Large parts of route 1 were laid out in the 40s and the ring road was completed in 1974. In 1998, Hvalfjarðargöng opened, a submarine tunnel north of Reykjavík that shortened the distance around the fjord by nearly 50 kilometers. Various parts of the route were once destroyed by natural disasters, particularly at times when the glaciers melted due to a volcanic eruption, causing huge mud and ice flows. This phenomenon is known as Jökulhlaup. These Jökulhlaups can cause water flows that have a discharge of 2 to 3 times the average annual discharge of the Mississippi River, or 25 times