two catwalks were erected between them, with the constructors choosing two continuous catwalks instead of three separate pairs. Extra stability to the catwalks was achieved by building connections between the two. The cables were spun on-site using a reel because of the problems which had arisen using a bundle on the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark. This also allowed for cost savings, as the reels could be used twice. The cables were spun using air spinning with controlled tension, which allowed spinning with little space and with a crew with limited spinning experience. This involved installing a carrier which shuttles forward and back over the catwalk; it spins the upper side of the cable in the one direction and the lower side in the other direction. The system has two reel racks, each with four reels of wire. Each rack only uses one reel at a time, allowing for minimum down-time when changing reels. Wires were connected using pressure casing. The balance in the system is kept in place using a counterbalance tower. Spinning of the main cable started on 24 May 2000 and was concluded on 13 July. In all of steel wire were used to create the cables for both bridges. It was the first time that on-site spinning was chosen in Norway, and it gave a cost saving of NOK 10 to 11 million. The cables consist of seven bundles which consist of 420 wires—each with a diameter of . When compressed, this gives a diameter of and a quality of 1,570 megapascals. The fastening poles were delivered five weeks after schedule; a new mounting method was developed which allowed them to be installed in a quarter of the time, in part by using a helicopter, and the whole five-week delay was eradicated. This allowed the deck sections to be installed as scheduled. There arose problems with small holes being created in the coating; as these had also been found on the Great Belt Bridge, it was decided that nothing would be done with the issue. The deck sections were produced by HBG in Portonogro, Italy By Cimolai and transported first by truck from the plant to the port, and then by barge to Stord. Each section is long and consisted of subsections to allow for transport to the port. They were mounted using the crane ship Uglen, allowing an average of four sections to be installed