Stockholm eyes a two-in-one redevelopment of Slussen area

The grand scale project can go ahead after a loan agreement was signed with EIB

The European Investment Bank announced on 3 March that an agreement for the provision of a 368-million-euro loan was signed with the City of Stockholm. These funds will go towards complete restructuring of one of the central areas in the Swedish capital, known as Slussen, turning it into a main hub for public transit, pedestrians and micromobility, but also for water mobility infrastructure.

This district is not new to large engineering feats as it has long served as the point of where water locks connecting Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea have been located, in addition to the first cloverleaf road interchange in Europe (opened in 1935 but recently demolished).

A big step towards sustainable mobility and infrastructure

As was explained by the press release the loan is needed in order to finance the makeover of Slussen (named after the water channel locks that make navigation between the lake and the sea possible for small boats). There are two main focus areas of the future project.

The first one refers to the updating of the navigation locks, devices that are already 85-years old, as well as updating the bridges that go above them. The capacity of the former will be increased five times with the addition of new discharge channels and that of the latter with the addition of bus and pedestrian lanes.

The second focus area aims to turn Slussen into a place associated with public transport connections. To that end, a new underground bus terminal with a capacity of 40 bus platforms will be built. This terminal itself will connect to another new addition called Atrium, which will be an intermodal transportation hub where commuters will be able to transfer between subway, buses, regional rail and ferries.

The project developers have also promised the addition of new cycling paths, footpaths and shops in the area.