Kvarken Bridge (Finnish: Merenkurkun silta, Swedish: Kvarkenbron) is a proposed bridge between Sweden and Finland across the strait of Kvarken as a part of the European route E12. The cost of the bridge has been estimated to about 1.5 to 2 billion euros. There are islands in the strait, and the sum of the lengths of the probably three bridge parts would be about . The Swedish minister of finance has said it is an interesting idea, but the idea is still decades from being brought to fruition. There is a debate in the coastal cities on both sides, like Umeå in Sweden and Vaasa in Finland.
The working group for the bridge has proposed a three-step programme:
In 2007, the Swedish Västerbotten business owners' association planned to commission a report into the significance of a bridge for the development of the region.[1]
In 2024, Finland announced that it would spend 200,000 euros on preliminary studies for a future bridge.[2]
A part of the area examined for a future bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. If a future bridge were to avoid this area completely, the cost of a future bridge would rise considerably.