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Norwegian national road (Norwegian: Riksvei/Riksveg abbr. Rv; literally: road of the rike/realm), are roads thus categorized by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen) which also maintains them. In 2007 there were 27,343 km of this class of Norwegian roads, which constituted 29.4% of public roads in Norway.
From 2010, after an administrative reform, most of the national roads were transferred to the counties. They are now called county roads along with the already existing county roads. 17,200 km of national roads were transferred along with an annual compensation of 6.9 billion NOK for maintenance. So as of January 1, 2010 there were 10,451 km of national roads left.
The national roads are selected by the criteria of being important for long-distance travel. Also some roads connecting to primary airports are included.
The national roads are divided into two categories: European routes and other national roads. The route signs for the European routes have an "E" preceding the national road number and the sign is green with white script. Other national roads are also designated using green signs.
Former national roads
All national roads have an asphalt concrete cover. Exceptions are some former national roads that have been given special status or protection. The "gravel roads package" was a governmental plan which saw to it that all national roads that hadn't been given special value in the National Protection Plan for Roads, Bridges, and Road-Related Cultural Heritage (Nasjonal verneplan for veger, bruer og vegrelaterte kulturminner) received asphalt covering. Norwegian National Road 716 between Bergli and Valen in Frøya, Sør-Trøndelag was the last regular stretch of national road with a gravel coating. The last two remaining kilometeres were asphalted on December 17, 2003 with participation by among others Minister of Transport and Communications Torild Skogsholm.
Norwegian former national roads that are being maintained as gravel roads according to the protection plan are road 252 (Tyin–Eidsbugarden), road 258 (Grotli-Ospeli bru) and road 886 (Bjørnstad–Jacobselv). All these roads have after the reform been converted to county roads.
The organization of national, county and village roads (later municipal roads) was introduced in 1931. Starting in 1912 the roads had been divided into main roads ("hovedveier") and village roads ("bygdeveier"). In 1931 signposted numbers for national roads were introduced. The main road were two digit ending with zero, for example road 50 Oslo–Kirkenes. The main roads in Østfold were numbered 1–9 based on an older local system. In 1965 a new system which included E-roads was introduced, and most of it is still used today (2016).