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| City nickname: "Síldarbærinn" (Herring Town), Sigló | |||
Location in Iceland | |||
| County | Skagafjarðarsýsla | ||
| Constituency | Northeast | ||
| Area | 155 km² ( 59.85mi²) | ||
| Population
- Density |
9.28/km² | ||
| Postal code | 580 | ||
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Latitude
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| Municipal website (http://www.siglo.is/) | |||
Siglufjörður is a small fishing town in a narrow fjord with the same name on the Northern coast of Iceland.
Population in 2003 was 1,438 but the town has been shrinking in size since the 1950's when the town reached its peak with 3000 inhabitants. The town grew up around the herring industry that was in much bloom in the 1940's and 1950's.
Today the town remains dependent on fishing industries although the herring is gone. The government of Iceland is attempting to reverse the population shrinking in the area by improving land transportation. Two road tunnels will be dug in the next decade to connect Siglufjörður to the neighbouring town of Ólafsfjörður in the region of Eyjafjörður to the east. These tunnels will be called Héðinsfjörður Tunnel and their total length will be 11 km. Siglufjörður is already connected by the 800 m Strákar Tunnel to the west, currently it is the town's only road connection and often gets closed during winter because of snow or avalanche danger.
The tunneling project is controversial due to its high cost and the fact that it benefits mainly a few thousand people in villages that have been shrinking fast in the last decade, there are many who are not convinced that the tunnels will reverse this development. The controversy also involves a seemingly easier access to public funds for projects in the more remote parts of Iceland than in the Reykjavík area, many allege that this is caused by the area's over-representation in Alþingi but currently 2 of the 10 MPs of the Northeast constituency are from Siglufjörður although the town comprises less then 4% of the constituency's population. Another source of controversy are environmental reasons because the tunnel project requires a road to be built across Héðinsfjörður fjord which is uninhabited and has barely been developed at all so far.
External links
- The Town's official website (www.siglo.is) (http://www.siglo.is/)
- The Herring era museum in Siglufjörður (http://www.siglo.is/herring/)de:Siglufjörður