Verktækni - 2019, Qupperneq 67

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system in rural
areas
The Miklabraut
„avenue“ in
Reykjavik
Miklabraut is still one of the main transportation routes within
Reykjavik city. It links the East part of the city with the West part.
Fertilizer plant
in Gufunes
1954 A law on the fertilizer plant was ratified in the parliament in 1949
and the US funded post WW2 Marshall Plan provided the
necessary economical means to finance the construction. The
plant equipment and layout was designed by US engineers, but all
civil work and engineering was designed and constructed by
Icelandic engineers and contractors (Mbl, 2002). The electrical
power was producedby the Irafoss power station, specifically built
for this purpose. This can be seen as the first example of power -
intensive industry in Iceland.

In the first decades of 20th century Icelandic society underwent fast development, and was transformed
from a being an undeveloped agriculture and fishing community - and one of the poorest country in
Europe - to a developed society. Industrialisation of the fisheries and the Marshall Plan aid following
World War II brought about great changes for Iceland and the Icelanders has now became one of the
richest nations in the world. The examples of project and programmes above shows some of the
milestones on this path and give an idea of the development in Iceland in the first half of the 20th
century.

In the period of 1961-2000 some large steps were taken in the harnessing of hydro and geothermal
power, mainly in order to provide power from local resources to the public and to facilitate the build-up
of power intensive industry in Iceland. The National Power Company was founded in 1965, and from the
beginning, the company has played a crucial role in the development of project management in Iceland.
A contract was made with Alusuisse in 1966 for power from the Burfell power station. Burfell hydro
power station was a project of a magnitude previously unknown in Iceland. It was the first time a power
station had been built in a glacier river, and this was a major step in the harnessing of hydro power in
Iceland. Previous power plants had been smaller, and they had been financed with owners´ capital, or by
borrowing from local banks. Burfell hydro plant was financed through a loan from the World Bank. The
World Bank had strict conditions regarding consultants and contractors. To begin with, Icelandic
consultants and contractors were too small and inadequate to fulfill these conditions, but the demands
by the World Bank put pressure on the Icelandic organisations to make necessary improvements in
order to fulfill these demands. As a consequence, Icelandic contractors and consultants who wanted to
be eligible to participate in these projects made some major improvements regarding their technical and
project management ability, and they were direct participants in later hydro power projects, such as
Hrauneyjafoss and Sigalda. Burfell power station was, for example, the first project where project
planning software was applied in Iceland, and the application of CPM was a key to delivering the first
phase - installing the first turbine - on time and on budget (E.S. Ingibergsson, personal communication,
February 3, 2017).