Denmark’s Fehmarnbelt tunnel will slash journey instances between Scandinavia and Central Europe.
Denmark and Germany are one step nearer to being linked by the world’s longest underwater rail and street tunnel.
Danish King Frederik X inaugurated the primary ingredient of a future 18-kilometre tunnel underneath the Baltic Sea on Monday. It is going to hyperlink southern Denmark to northern Germany and contribute to the transport sector’s inexperienced transition.
The Fehmarnbelt hyperlink, which is anticipated to open in 2029, can even lower journey from the current 45-minute ferry crossing to as little as seven minutes by prepare.
It is going to hyperlink Roedby on the Danish aspect to Puttgarten in Germany, with onward connections by street and rail to central Europe and the Nordic international locations.
First part of Fehmarnbelt tunnel able to be submerged
Frederik unveiled a plaque on the entrance of the primary 217-metre part of the tunnel, which shall be submerged right into a seabed trench on the Danish aspect later this 12 months. He dropped a coin at his effigy right into a time capsule containing objects donated by those that constructed the concrete components.
Sund & Baelt, the corporate constructing the Fehmarn hyperlink, claims it will likely be the longest submersible tunnel. It is going to additionally embrace an electrified prepare observe. Vehicles are anticipated to have the ability to cross the Baltic Sea in 10 minutes on the 4 lanes and trains will try this in seven minutes.
In 2011, it was determined {that a} hyperlink between the southern Denmark island of Lolland and the northern German isle of Fehmarn ought to be constructed as an immersed tunnel. Work on the Danish aspect was commissioned in July 2022, and on the German aspect precisely a 12 months later.
How a lot will the Fehmarn hyperlink value?
The tunnel will include 89 concrete components that are being constructed at a particular facility in Roedbyhavn on Lolland, dubbed North Europe’s largest building web site. In Could, the primary of the weather was forged.
The Fehmarn hyperlink will value 55.1 billion kroner (€4.8 billion) and shall be paid by customers in Denmark. The Danish authorities will determine the toll cost for the tunnel at a later stage.
Lately Denmark has constructed road-and-rail hyperlinks to neighbouring Sweden and between two main Danish islands.
In 2000, a bridge-and-tunnel hyperlink throughout the Oresund strait linked Copenhagen to Sweden’s third largest metropolis Malmo, and in 1998, street visitors opened between the islands of Funen, the place Odense – Denmark’s third largest metropolis – is situated, and Zealand, the place Copenhagen sits. Practice visitors there began a 12 months earlier.
