The record tunnel built by Denmark to Germany

Under the Baltic Sea, a record tunnel is being built between Denmark and Germany, which will reduce travel time and improve Scandinavia’s ties with the rest of Europe.

Running for 18 km (11 miles), Fehmarnbelt will be the longest pre-made road and railway tunnel.

It is also a remarkable feat of engineering that will see segments of the tunnel placed on top of the seafloor, and then united.

The main construction site of the project is located at the northern entrance of the tunnel, on the banks of Loland Island to the southeastern part of Denmark.

The facility covers more than 500 hectares (1235 acres) and includes a port and factory that produces tunnel sections called “elements”.

“It’s a huge facility here,” says Henrik Vinsen, CEO of Femern, the state -owned Danish company that builds the tunnel.

To make every 217 m (712 feet) and 42 m wide reinforced steel is distinguished by concrete.

Most underwater tunnels – including the 50 km channel tunnel between the United Kingdom and France – crashes across the base below the seafloor. Instead, 90 individual elements will be connected, piece by piece, like Lego bricks.

“We change records with this project,” says G -n Vinsen. “The submerged tunnels have been built before, but never on this scale.”

With a price price of about 7.4 billion euros ($ 8.1 billion; $ 6.3 billion), the scheme is funded mainly by Denmark, with 1.3 billion euros by the European Commission.

This is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the region and part of a wider EU plan to strengthen travel connections across the continent, while reducing flying.

After completing, the trip between Rødbyhavn in southern Denmark and Puttgarten in northern Germany will only take 10 minutes by car or seven minutes by train, replacing a 45-minute ferry trip.

Assessing Western Denmark, the new railway route will also halve travel time between Copenhagen and Hamburg from five to 2.5 hours and will provide a “more ecological” shortcut for cargo and passengers.

“Not only does it associate Denmark with Germany, it also connects Scandinavia with Central Europe,” said Vinsensen. “Everyone is the winner,” he said. “And by traveling at 160 km less, you will also reduce carbon and reduce the impact of transport.”

Slected by taps, the entrance to the tunnel sits at the base of a steep coastal wall with sparkling seawater lying above the head.

“So now we’re in the first part of the tunnel,” said Senior Construction Manager Anders Gert Ued as we enter the highway of the future. This is one of the five parallel pipes in each element.

There are two for railways, two for roads (which have two lanes in each direction) and a maintenance corridor and emergency emergency corridors.

At the other end huge steel doors retain the sea. “As you can hear, it’s quite thick,” he says the metal tapping. “When we have a finished element in the harbor, it will be drawn to the place and then we will slowly dip it behind the steel doors here.”

Not only are these elements long, but they are extremely heavy, weighing over 73,000 tonnes. Still, it is amazing that sealing the edges is watertight and puts them with ballast tanks, giving sufficient straps to pull them behind tractors.

It is then a thoroughly complicated procedure, lowering the elements 40 meters down into a trench, dug on the seabed, using underwater cameras and GPS-cooked equipment to arrange it with 15 mm accuracy.

“We have to be very, very careful,” emphasizes the Wede. “We have a system called” PIN and Catch “where you have a V-shaped structure and some hands that grasp on the element, dragging it slowly in place.”

Denmark sits at the mouth of the Baltic Sea, off the sea with loaded shipping sails.

With clay layers and chalk base, the underground surface is too soft to break through a drilling tunnel, said Per Goltermann, a professor of concrete and structures at the Denmark Technical University.

Initially, the bridge was considered, but strong winds could disturb the traffic, and security was another important consideration.

“There was a risk that ships would collide into bridges. We can build the bridge so they could endure it,” he adds. “But this is quite deep water and the largest ships can sail there.”

So, adding G -n Goltermann, it was decided to go with a submerged tunnel. “They looked at him and said,” Okay, what’s the cheapest? The tunnel. What is the most secure? The tunnel. “

Denmark and Germany signed an agreement to build the tunnel in 2008, but the scheme delayed with the opposition of ferry operators and German protection groups concerned about the environmental impact.

Such an environmental group, Nabu (the Union for Nature and Biodiversity) claims that this area of ​​Baltic is an important habitat for larvae and port fashions that are sensitive to underwater noise.

However, in 2020, their legal challenge was rejected by a federal court in Germany, which will continue green.

“We have made many initiatives to make sure that the impact of this project is as little as possible,” says Mr. Vinsensen, pointing to the natural area and relaxation of 300 hectares, which is planned on a regenerated land built by the curved sand and the rock.

When the tunnel opened in 2029, FEMERN estimates that more than 100 trains and 12,000 cars will use it every day.

According to the plans, the revenues collected from the fees for toll will pay off the state loans that have been removed to finance construction, and Mr. Vinsensen estimates that it will take about four decades. “In the end, users will pay,” he says.

We also hope that the huge investment will strengthen jobs, business and tourism in Loland, which is one of Denmark’s most overwhelming regions.

“The locals have been waiting for this project here for many years,” said G -n Wede, who is growing nearby. “They are looking forward to the business coming to the area.”