Did the islands pay for these tunnels themselves? How? What is the payoff period (I.e how long until the economic value of the tunnels exceeds their costs?).
Halfway down the the article, there's a bit about the Vaga tunnel, it's ownership, funding and payoff. Key points:
Vága-og Norðoyatunnilin – an independent, limited liability company fully owned by the Faroese government – was established to own and operate the Vaga tunnel.
The government provided DKK 160 million ($20.3 million) in financing, while local banks provided the remaining DKK 140 million ($17.8 million), with the tunnel and roads used as their guarantee.
Sound financial management and the unexpected popularity of the tunnels, with traffic growing 134 percent over the same amount of time, helped pay off the loan two years early.
Many highways and tunnels are being built here in the same way as well, called "public private partnership" or PPP. A private firm builds it and owns it and the government pays for the usage for say 20 years after which the government then owns it.
This has been the business idea for many instances where spending a big one time sum is politically hard, yet would be financially smart. Some have tried to sell it for many other things, for example energy saving equipment for a hospital.
Vága-og Norðoyatunnilin – an independent, limited liability company fully owned by the Faroese government – was established to own and operate the Vaga tunnel.
The government provided DKK 160 million ($20.3 million) in financing, while local banks provided the remaining DKK 140 million ($17.8 million), with the tunnel and roads used as their guarantee.
Sound financial management and the unexpected popularity of the tunnels, with traffic growing 134 percent over the same amount of time, helped pay off the loan two years early.