A record tunnel built from Denmark to Germany

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

Fehmarnbelt, which runs 18 km (11 miles), will become the world’s longest road and rail tunnel.

It is also a great feat of the technique that sees the segments of the tunnel located on the top of the seabed and then joined together.

The main construction site of the project is located on the northern entrance to the tunnel, on the coast of the island of Lolland in the southeast of Denmark.

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

“This is a huge facility here,” says Henry Vinsen, CEO of Femenk, a state-owned Danish company that builds a tunnel.

To make each 217 m (712 feet) length and 42 m. The element, the enhanced steel, is cast concrete.

Most underwater tunnels – including a 50 -kilometer channel tunnel between the UK and France – is filled through the base under the sea bottom. 90 separate elements will be linked here instead of Lego bricks.

“We beat the records with this project,” says Mr. Vinsen. “Shipped tunnels were built earlier, but never on this scale.”

With a cost of about 7.4 billion euros ($ 8.1 billion.

It is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the region, and part of the broader EU plan to strengthen travel across the continent when fl ”.

Upon completion of the journey between Radbikhov in Southern Denmark and Putgarten in northern Germany, it will only take 10 minutes by car, or seven minutes by train, replacing a 45-minute ferry.

Bypassing Western Denmark, the new railway route also fell twice on a trip between Copenhagen and Hamburg from five to 2.5 hours, as well as providing a label for goods and passengers.

“It not only connects Denmark with Germany, but also connects Scandinavia with Central Europe,” says Mr. Vinance. “All the winners,” he says. “And traveling 160 km less, you will also reduce carbon and reduce the impact of transport.”

The entrance, which rises with tunnels, the entrance to the tunnel is at the base of a steep coastal wall with shiny seawater lying above your head.

“So now we are in the first part of the tunnel,” says the senior construction manager Anders Gert Veda when we go down the future highway. This is one of the five parallel pipes in each element.

There are two for rail lines, two for roads (having two strips each direction), as well as an emergency and emergency corridor.

At the other end, huge steel doors hold back the sea. “As you can hear, it’s pretty thick,” he says, pressing the metal. “If we have a ready -made element in the harbor, it will be closed to the place, and then we slowly immerse it behind the steel door.”

These elements are not only long, they are extremely heavy, weighing more than 73,000 tons. But incredibly, sealing the waterproof ends and installing them ballast tanks, gives it enough to haul behind the tugs.

Next, it is a painstakingly complicated procedure, reducing the elements of 40 meters in a trench dug on the seafloor, using submarines and equipment that is managed by GPS to align it with an accuracy of 15 mm.

“We must be very, very careful,” Mr. Veda emphasizes. “We have a system called” PIN and catch “, where you have a V-shaped structure and a few hands that grab on the item, slowly dragging it into place.”

Denmark sits at the mouth of the Baltic States, on the section of the sea with busy tracks.

With clay layers and the bases of chalk, the underground surface is too soft to drill a hole tunnel, said that for Golderman, a professor of concrete and structure at the technical university of Denmark.

Initially, the bridge was considered, but the strong wind could break the movement, and security was another important issue.

“There was a risk when the ships crashed into the bridges. We can build a bridge so they can withstand it,” he adds. “But it’s pretty deep water, and the biggest ships can swim there.”

Thus, Mr -n Goldman adds, it was decided to go with a submerged tunnel. “They looked at it and said, ‘Good, what’s the cheapest? Tunnel. What is the safest? Tunnel. “

Denmark and Germany signed an agreement on the construction of the tunnel back in 2008, but the scheme was detained by the opposition by ferry operators and German environmental groups.

One of these environmental groups – Nabu (nature and biodiversity preservation), claimed that this Baltic area is an important habitat for larvae and harbor that are sensitive to underwater noise.

However, in 2020, their legal challenge was rejected by the Federal Court in Germany, in which the construction with green lighting should go forward.

“We have done a lot of initiatives to make sure that the impact of this project is as small as possible,” says Mr. Vinsen, pointing to 300 hectares of nature and a recreational zone planned on reclaimed land that was built of sand and rocks.

When a tunnel opens in 2029, Femenk estimates that more than 100 trains and 12,000 cars will use it every day.

According to the plans, the income collected by the fee for the fee will be paid by state loans that were provided to finance construction, and Mr. Vensen estimates that it will take about four decades. “Ultimately, users are going to pay,” he says.

It is also hoped that huge investments will increase jobs, business and tourism in Liondy, which is one of the poorest regions of Denmark.

“The locals have been waiting for this project here for many years,” said Mr. Veda, who grew up nearby. “They look forward to businesses coming to the area.”