At the end of the decade, an underwater highway and train tracks will run between the Danish Lolland and the German island of Fehmarn.
RØDBY, DENMARK It is windy and strong in the harbor on a warm autumn day. Standing in the huge area, you can see the construction site on the other side as far as you can see due to the glare of the sun. The sea roars on the other side.
On the Danish island of Lolland, in the city of Rødby, a construction project is underway, which will affect the neighboring countries in the south and north, especially when it is completed. The world’s longest underwater Fehmarnbelt tunnel is being built in the Fehmarn strait between Holland and the German Fehmarn islands.
In ten minutes to Germany
The construction project contains superlatives and big numbers. The 42-meter-wide and more than 18-kilometer-long tunnel will have both a highway and train tracks. The eight-and-a-half-year project will directly employ around 2,000 people and is scheduled for completion in 2029.
From then on, Rødby harbor to Puttgarden is 7 minutes by train and 10 minutes by car. The 39-meter-deep tunnel consumes approximately 350,000 tons of steel and nearly 7.5 billion euros. The project has received EU support and a Danish government loan, which in the future will be repaid with customs payments.
The price is around 7.5 billion euros
Employs approximately 2,000 people directly
Will be completed in 2029
The train goes through the tunnel in 7 minutes and the car in about 10 minutes
The builder is not afraid of underwater destruction
The authorities and the developer believe that the bridge will affect tourism and commerce all the way to Sweden and Finland, when the movement of people and goods becomes easier.
In practice, at the end of the decade, you can get from Malmö by train or car via Copenhagen to Hamburg in just over three hours.
On the other hand, the damage to the underwater pipes last year and this year raise questions about the impact of the security situation on the tunnel project. The Danish company responsible for construction, Femern, sees no threats.
– Fehmarninsalmi is one of the busiest waterways in the world, used by 30,000 ferries. The authorities are constantly monitoring the area, so no serious situations should happen, the communications manager Morten Kramer Nielsen tells at the construction site.
Inspiration for the tunnel between Helsinki and Tallinn
A project of this magnitude will inevitably affect the environment on land, sea and air. Femern assures that environmental issues have been taken into account.
– We will build, for example, a large nature area and many small lakes instead – Of course, not as many lakes as in Finland, says Kramer Nielsen, Femern’s communications manager.
He adds that when completed, the tunnel will reduce traffic emissions, as the five-hour journey from Copenhagen to Hamburg will be halved. According to the company, the project uses only green electricity production and selects materials with the smallest possible carbon footprint.
Denmark, surrounded by straits, has built, among other things, the Ison-Belt bridge leading from Zealand to Jutland and the Juutinrauma bridge and tunnel connection between Denmark and Sweden. Chairman of the Danish Nature Conservation Society Michael Løvendal Kruse tells on the phone that lessons have been learned from the mistakes of these projects.
The Nature Conservation Society is satisfied with how environmental issues and the nature conservation society’s expertise have been taken into account from the beginning of the project. Danish and German environmental experts have also been in contact with each other for years.
– This is a large project that can also provide experience and inspiration for the tunnel project between Helsinki and Tallinn, says Løvendal Kruse.
According to environmental organizations, the tunnel is especially good because goods can be transported by train instead of planes and trucks.
The matter was corrected on 17.10. 9:40 am: The price of the tunnel is almost 7.5 billion euros (not 7.5 million).