Samgöngur / Transportation
Greiðar og öruggar samgöngur eru lífæð samfélaga og forsenda lífsgæða. Að íbúar komist greiðlega milli byggðakjarna er forsenda framþróunar og uppbyggingar atvinnulífs og blómlegs mannlífs á Austurlandi en ekki síður forsenda þess að sameining fjögurra sveitarfélaga í eitt verði farsæl. Þar ber hæst að nefna samgöngubætur eins og göng undir Fjarðarheiði sem og heilsársveg yfir Öxi en endurbætur á veginum til Borgarfjarðar eru hafnar. Það eru líklega engir innviðir sem geta haft jafn víðtæk áhrif á framtíð og framþróun Austurlands eins og greiðar samgöngur. Íbúaþróun hefur ekki verið Austurlandi hagstæð en Hagstofa Íslands spáir fólksfækkun í nánustu framtíð svo styrking innviða er helsta áskorun nýs sveitarfélags þar sem tækifærin til sóknar eru fjölmörg.
Í vetur hafa íbúar landsins upplifað hversu mjög erfiðar samgöngur geta hamlað lífsgæðum og öryggi íbúa.
Stjórnvöld hafa boðað þá stefnu að sameina sveitarfélög og styrkja þannig sveitarstjórnarstigið sem mikil þörf er á. Þeirri stefnu þarf að fylgja fjármagn og vilji til að gera samfélögum kleift að sameinast í reynd og samnýta þannig þau lífsgæði og sérkenni sem hver kjarni býður upp á. Stóra verkefnið sem blasir við nýju sveitarfélagi er að tryggja greiðar samgöngur milli kjarna svo hægt sé að nýta þau fjölmörgu tækifæri til fulls sem blasa við.
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Safe and easy travel is the key to a successful community and essential to good quality of life. To be able to build a thriving economic and social unit in East Iceland, transport plays a big part, specially to make the merger of the four towns that are now joining forces successful. The biggest improvements to transport here in the region is the tunnel under Fjarðarheiði and all year access to the road over Öxi and improvements to the road to Borgarfjörður are already underway. Most likely there is no other infrastructure that is going to affect the development and future of East Iceland as much as the road system. The population index has not been kind to East Iceland and Statistics Iceland are forecasting a decrease in the population soon, so developing infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges facing a new municipality where the chances to move forward are numerous.
Safe and easy travel is the key to a successful community and essential to good quality of life. To be able to build a thriving economic and social unit in East Iceland, transport plays a big part, specially to make the merger of the four towns that are now joining forces successful. The biggest improvements to transport here in the region is the tunnel under Fjarðarheiði and all year access to the road over Öxi and improvements to the road to Borgarfjörður are already underway. Most likely there is no other infrastructure that is going to affect the development and future of East Iceland as much as the road system. The population index has not been kind to East Iceland and Statistics Iceland are forecasting a decrease in the population soon, so developing infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges facing a new municipality where the chances to move forward are numerous.
This winter the people of Iceland have experienced how difficult travel conditions can have effect on the quality of life and safety of the people.
The government has a policy of merging municipalities and by doing that strengthening the local councils. That policy must have the funding and the will to enable communities to truly merge and make the most of quality and individuality that each town has to offer. The big challenge to a new municipality is to make travel and transport between towns safe and secure so we can fully exploit the opportunities that are all around us.