Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.08.2014, Qupperneq 6

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 2011
The road is being built to accommo-
date the people of Álftanes, a town
of 2,500 that was incorporated into
neighbouring municipality Garðabær
in 2013. Justifying the massive and
expensive construction, Mayor Gun-
nar Einarsson says that the current
Álftanesvegur road is too dangerous,
featuring a blind head and ten other
roads that merge into it. “It doesn’t
meet the requirements of the neigh-
bourhood that will be built in the near
future,” he says, insisting that his
experts deem the road to be not only
absolutely necessary, but also the only
viable solution.
The road has been on the town’s
agenda since 1995, with parliament
in 2009 approving plans to build a
six-lane highway that would accom-
modate up to 50,000 cars per day, ten
times more than currently use the
existing road. “The people of Prýðish-
verfi [a newly built luxury neighbour-
hood on the southern edge of Gálgah-
raun] bought their houses under the
assumption that the new road would
be built.” Gunnar says. “The matter
had gone through all the appropriate
committees and processes—the only
sensible thing left was to go ahead and
build the road.”
Enter the elf
conservationists
This construction was firmly opposed
by environmental conservationist
group Hraunavinir (“Lava Friends”),
who claimed it would cause irrepara-
ble damage to the scenic area. Agree-
ing that the current road is hazardous,
the group spent the better part of 2013
providing the Álftanes council with al-
ternative solutions that were less cost-
ly while making the current road safer,
all the while preserving the lava field.
One such suggestion included adding
roundabouts where other roads inter-
sected with the old one, which would
slow down traffic and do away with
the need for extra traffic lights.
The suggestions were uniformly
turned down, and despite protests,
rallies, petitions and an injunction
filed against the Icelandic Road Ad-
ministration, the contractors started
their work in October. With no alter-
natives left, the conservationists took
to the field to protest the construction.
After 25 protesters (many of whom
are senior citizens) were forcibly re-
moved and arrested for obstructing
the bulldozers, the international me-
dia showed an interest in the story. Un-
fortunately for the conservationists,
however, an article by the Associated
Press focused on the elf enthusiasts
that had joined the protests to stop the
new road from passing through an “elf
church,” a rock that hidden folk pur-
portedly congregate in. The article,
“Iceland's Hidden Elves Delay Road
Projects,” was picked up by numerous
news outlets, including The Guardian,
Huffington Post and AOL, ultimately
portraying the very serious protests
as nothing more than a comical farce—
while perpetuating the myth that all
Icelanders believe in elves.
Artist and protester Tinna Þor-
valds-Önnudóttir says the foreign
press completely missed the point.
She was there to protest an absolutely
unnecessary destruction of nature,
and was one of nine activists charged
with disobeying police orders. “I was
sick and tired of capitalistic authori-
ties acting like dictators, having their
way at everyones else's expense,” she
says, “and it’s not clear who’s going to
benefit from this new expensive road
being built when there are better al-
ternatives.”
Pride and prejudice
Hraunavinir board member and mu-
sician Gunnsteinn Ólafsson echoed
Tinna’s sentiments, agreeing that the
town council had acted belligerently.
He says the council made the process
seem transpar-
ent, as if they were
seeking a solu-
tion that everyone
could agree on, but
ultimately proved
absolutely unwill-
ing to cooperate
or entertain alter-
native viewpoints.
At no point did
the mayor invite
Hraunavinir to participate in the deci-
sion process, even though the Aarhus
Convention (ratified into Icelandic
law in 2011) guarantees them that
right, and obligates authorities to take
their views into account before mak-
ing a final decision.
Gunnar, on the other hand, claims
he respects the opinions of Hrauna-
vinir and the protesters, but says their
assessment and solution are utopian
and out of touch with reality. “We’ve
already planned the whole neigh-
bourhood around the old road,” he
says. “The only way to avoid going
through the lava field would have
been to build an underground tunnel,
and that’s not economically viable.”
Gunnsteinn confesses he did not
expect the matter to go as far as it
did, from his simple verbal protests to
ending up in jail charged with crimi-
nal conduct. He was also surprised,
he says, that the police were so heavy-
handed in their arrests, tightening
their zip tie handcuffs so much that
they wound up injuring two protest-
ers. “Thankfully I wasn’t hurt, but if
my hands had been damaged, I would
have been unable to
work and provide
for my family. We
don’t believe the po-
lice have the right to
walk over citizens
in this manner, and
we will seek our
justice from the
courts.”
He continues to
say that he is sur-
prised that the Icelandic Road Ad-
ministration decided to sink 1.1 bil-
lion ISK (around 1 million USD) into
this new road, money that could have
been used to fix several roads around
the country that need urgent atten-
tion.
The road forward
At this point, there is nothing left for
the conservationists to do with re-
gards to Gálgahraun—the damage is
already done. Gunnar says two lanes
of the road will be completed around
2016, after which town authorities
will decide upon any further expan-
sion.
The nine arrested protesters are
still awaiting their day in court, but
Gunnsteinn says they have legal pro-
ceedings of their own in process. In
addition to suing the Icelandic state
for not allowing them to exercise
their constitutionally guaranteed
right of peaceful protest, the group
also has another case before the
European Free Trade Association
(EFTA) court, concerning the state’s
disregard of the Aarhus convention.
Moving forward, Gunnar says
the town has taken the utmost care
in protecting the “elf church” from
harm. “I’ve been in contact with
Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir, a psychic
who can communicate with elves,”
he says. “We’ve walked through the
field together and talked to the elves,
and they have started to prepare to
move out. We’ll move the church
soon, so they won’t be bothered by
the construction.”
Tinna says the worst part about
the AP article is that it makes the
town council look like the good guys
in the story—after all, they save the
elf church. “That’s all fine and dandy
for the elves, but they are absolutely
not the heart of the matter.”
Environment | In memoriam
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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 2 — 2014
On the Álftanes peninsula, a good ten kilometres from
downtown Reykjavík, lies a unique lava field called Gálgah-
raun. The towns of Hafnarfjörður, Álftanes and Garðabær
were all built around the 8,000-year-old lava, which is on
the Nature Conservation Register and was immortalised
on canvas by celebrated Icelandic artist Jóhannes S. Kjar-
val. Gálgahraun was widely considered to be one of the
few spots of unspoilt nature left in the greater metropoli-
tan area, but it isn’t any more, as a big highway that cuts
the field in two is currently under construction.
It Was My Way,
And The Highway
Gálgahraun lava field and
the new Álftanesvegur road
Words by Tómas Gabríel Benjamin
Photo by Julia Staples
“We’ve walked through
the field together and
talked to the elves, and
they have started to pre-
pare to move out. We’ll
move the church soon,
so they won’t be both-
ered by the new road.”
The Gálgahraun lava field was
formed 8,000 years ago, when the
mountain Búrfell erupted. It lies
by the municipalities Álftanes,
Garðarbær and Hafnarfjörður, ten
kilometres from Reykjavík.
Gálgahraun is pristine no more.
Despite heavy protests, the
bulldozers rolled through Gál-
gahraun in October of 2013.
Gálgahraun