Buskerud is a county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Innlandet, Vestland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Hardangervidda mountain range in the northwest. The county administration was in modern times located in Drammen. Buskerud was merged with Akershus and Østfold into the newly created Viken County on 1 January 2020. On 23 February 2022, the Viken County Council voted in a 49 against 38 decision to submit an application to the Norwegian government for a county demerger. Due to this, Buskerud was re-established in 2024.
Sandefjord Airport, Torp is a minor international airport located 4 nautical miles northeast of Sandefjord and 110 kilometers (68 mi) south of Oslo in Norway. The airport features a 2,989-meter (9,806 ft) runway aligned 18/36. Torp partially serves as a regional airport for Vestfold and in part as a low-cost airport for Eastern Norway and the capital, Oslo. Widerøe have a base at Torp, serving both domestic and shorter International flights. It also sees scheduled flights by airBaltic, Ryanair, Wizz Air, and Norwegian Air Shuttle. As of 2021, it is the second-largest airport in eastern Norway in terms of flights after Rygge shut down in 2016.
There are 15 counties in Norway. The 15 counties are administrative regions that are the first-level administrative divisions of Norway. The counties are further subdivided into 357 municipalities. The island territories of Svalbard and Jan Mayen are outside the county divisions and they are ruled directly from the national level. The capital city of Oslo is both a county and a municipality.
Gransherad is a former municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The 417-square-kilometre (161 sq mi) municipality existed from 1860 until its dissolution in 1964. The area is now part of Notodden Municipality and Kongsberg Municipality. The administrative centre was the village of Gransherad where Gransherad Church is located.
Sandsvær is a area in Kongsberg, Buskerud county, Norway. The area is identical to the former municipality named Sandsvær. Sandsvær is situated in the valley of Lågendalen on the Numedalslågen river, and is bordered by Kongsberg town in the north, and the county border to Vestfold and Telemark counties in the south.
Notodden Airport is a municipal regional airport at Heddal in Notodden, a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. The airport is mostly used for general aviation, and has extensive sailplane activity. In 2011, the airport had 5,078 aircraft movements and 3,423 passengers. The airport has a single 1,393-by-40-meter runway with flight information service and instrument landing system. In connection with the airport is a water aerodrome, which uses the lake of Heddalsvatnet for take-off and landing.
Southern Norway Regional Health Authority was a regional health authority that covered the counties of Aust-Agder, Buskerud, Telemark, Vest-Agder and Vestfold in Norway, as well as the national hospitals in Oslo. The authority was founded on January 1, 2002, but merged with the Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority to form the new Southern and Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority on June 1, 2007.
Buskerud University College was a university college established 1 August 1994 and situated in Viken county, Norway. It merged with Vestfold University College on 1 January 2014 to form Buskerud and Vestfold University College. This new school merged again on 1 January 2016 with Telemark University College into University College of Southeast Norway.
Heistadmoen is a Norwegian military encampment in Kongsberg, in Buskerud county, Norway. Heistadmoen currently provides able quarters for the Telemark and Buskerud Home Guard District. The camp is large and modern, most of the buildings have been recently refurbished. The camp is also used by other departments for training and shooting.
Eikeren or Eikern is a long, deep lake in eastern Norway. The 27.6-square-kilometre (10.7 sq mi) lake is located on the border of Øvre Eiker Municipality in Buskerud county and Holmestrand Municipality in Vestfold county. It is the largest lake in all of Vestfold county, measuring about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) long and 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) wide, and reaching a depth of 158 metres (518 ft).
The Norwegian Correctional Service is a government agency responsible for the implementation of detention and punishment in a way that is reassuring for the society and for preventing crimes. The agency is governed by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Security.
Buskerud and Vestfold University College was a regional university college with campuses in Drammen, Kongsberg, Hønefoss and Horten in the counties of Vestfold og Telemark and Viken, Norway.
Regional State Archives in Kongsberg is a regional state archives situated in Kongsberg, Norway. Part of the National Archival Services of Norway, it is responsible for archiving documents from state institutions in the counties of Buskerud, Telemark and Vestfold. The agency is the youngest regional state archive, opening in 1994. Prior to this, documents from the three counties were stored at the Regional State Archives in Oslo. The archive has about 14 shelf-kilometers of material. Intermunicipal Archives of Buskerud, Vestfold and Telemark moved to an adjoining building in 2014, allowing the two to share a common reading room and conservation facilities.
The Regional State Archives in Oslo is a regional state archives situated at Sognsvann in Oslo, Norway. Part of the National Archival Services of Norway, it is responsible for archiving documents from state institutions in the counties of Akershus, Oslo and Østfold. The facility is jointly located with the National Archives of Norway. The collection includes 19.2 shelf-kilometers of material.
The University of South-Eastern Norway, commonly known as USN, is a Norwegian state university. It has campuses in Bø in Telemark, Porsgrunn, Notodden, Rauland, Drammen, Hønefoss, Kongsberg and Horten. USN is a continuation of the three former university colleges, Telemark University College, Buskerud University College and Vestfold University College, which merged between 2014 and 2016 to form the University College of South-Eastern Norway. The institution was granted the status of a full university by the King-in-Council on 4 May 2018.
Vestfold og Telemark was a county in Norway, which existed from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2023. The county was the southernmost one of Eastern Norway and consisted of two distinct and separate traditional regions: the former counties of Telemark and Vestfold. The capital was located in the town of Skien, which was also the county's largest city. While Skien was the seat of the county municipality, the seat of the County Governor was Tønsberg. It bordered the counties of Viken, Vestland, Rogaland and Agder until its dissolution.
Local elections were held in Norway on 9 September 2019. Voters elected representatives to municipal and county councils, which are responsible for education, public transport, health, and elderly care, and for the levy of certain taxes.
Viken was a short-lived county in Norway that existed from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2024. Its name was derived from the historical region in modern Sweden. The county was located in Eastern Norway when it was established on 1 January 2020 by the merger of Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold with the addition of the municipalities of Jevnaker, Lunner and the former Svelvik Municipality. Both its creation and its name—described as unhistorical by historians—were controversial from the onset, the merger was resisted by all the three counties and the new county had an approval rating of about 20% in the region. Viken has been compared to gerrymandering. The newly constructed coat of arms of Viken lacked a historical basis and was described by experts as an amateurish logo that did not adhere to the rules of heraldry, and as "three flying saucers under a cap." The county executive of Viken determined in 2019, before the merger had taken effect, that the county's disestablishment was its main political goal, and the formal process to dissolve Viken was initiated by the county executive right after the 2021 Norwegian parliamentary election in which parties seeking to reverse the merger won a majority. The political platform of the government of Jonas Gahr Støre stated that the government would dissolve Viken and re-establish Akershus, Buskerud and Østfold based on a request from the county itself. On 22 February 2022, the regional assembly of Viken approved the formal request to disestablish the county, and the disestablishment took effect on 1 January 2024.
The Grenland Line is a proposed high-speed railway line that would connect Grenland and Gjerstad in Norway. Specifically, the line would connect the Sørlandet Line at Skorstøl to the Vestfold Line at either Porsgrunn or Skien, allowing passenger trains from Stavanger and Kristiansand to be routed on the Vestfold Line through Grenland and Vestfold. The Grenland Line is proposed built with double track and with a speed of 250 km/h (160 mph). Three routes have been proposed, varying in length between 64 and 70 kilometers. A prerequisite is that the Vestfold Line be upgraded to double track and high-speed, a process that started in the mid-1990s and which is scheduled for completion in 2032. A completion of the upgraded Vestfold Line and the Grenland Line would reduce travel time for passenger trains between Gjerstad and Oslo by about 70 minutes.
