AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.03.2003, Page 57

Einar Karl Haraldsson
A connecting road
for the Capital
Area
Building Bridges Over
Creeks and Digging Tunnels
sem hefur skynjað hagræðið af
Hvalfjarðargöngunum og ætlar sér
að bora göt á nokkur fjöll fyrir
austan og norðan á næstunni, að
greiða fyrir umferð á höfuðborgar-
svæðinu með sams konar mann-
virkjum.Samgöngumálin eru lykillinn
að betra skipulagi. Þau verða stór-
mál næstu framtíðar á höfuð-
borgarsvæðinu og í næsta nágrenni
þess. Hringvegur um höfuðborgar-
svæðið, með tilheyrandi gagnagerð
og brúun sunda eykur afkastagetu
samgöngukerfisins og myndi borga
sig á stuttum tíma með hagkvæmni
samfelldrar og þéttrar byggðar,
bættu mannlífi og fegurra borgar-
útliti. ■
On the 20th of December, 2002,
Minister for the Environment, Siv
Friðleifsdóttir ratified the
Development Plan for Reykjavík
and the Regional Plan for the
Capital, 2001-2024. These docu-
ments are based on considerable
work and are milestones in two
respects. On one hand, it marks
the first extensive and fruitful dis-
cussion taken place on behalf of
specialists and laymen in city plan-
ning and development for
Reykjavík, resulting in new
direction of development. On the
other, for the first time Reykjavík
and seven adjoining local authori-
ties collaborated in the making of
the Regional Plan, an acknowl-
edgement to the fact that the
Capital Area is one labour market
and future development will obvi-
ously join existing built areas into
a continuous conurbation during
the next decades. Increased collab-
oration of these local authorities is
therefore unavoidable in more and
more fields, not least in urban plan-
ning.
Unresolved Issues
The ratification by the Minister for
the Environment of the above plans
does not mean that all issues are
resolved however, the most contro-
versial being the Reykjavík Airport in
Vatnsmýri. The Transportation
Authorities are against the intention
of the City of Reykjavik to abandon
the airport and use the area instead
for City Centre land-use, despite
diminishing use of the airport and
contraction in inland air traffic. The
Minister for the Environment has
therefore appointed a committee
with the unusual role of proposing
land use in the Vatnsmýri area,
which has already been voted on in
a public referendum in the spring of
2001. By this appointment, the
Minister overrides the vote of the
majority of people living in Reykjavík
and supports new arguments
about the most important building
land of Reykjavík.
Another unresolved issue between
City and State is the thoroughfare
Sundabraut over the creek
Kleppsvík. The State advocates the
cheapest solution; the City of
Reykjavík, bearing in mind its future
development, seeks to further the
objectives laid down in the newly-
ratified Development Plan. There, it
is intended for Reykjavík to become
an ecological and international
Capital City and to make this possi-
ble, it is of primary importance “to
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