Last month, construction began on the world’s longest road and rail tunnel, the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel, which will run underneath the Baltic Sea between two European countries’ port towns. This massive infrastructure project is designed to reduce travel times between Germany and Denmark and between Central Europe and Scandinavia.
The German and Danish governments, the European Union, and the project’s builders are also hoping the tunnel will help travelers of all kinds save time and money and reduce their CO2 emissions in order to meet environmental goals. Since this tunnel will impact many people who frequently travel between the two countries, it’s worth taking a deeper dive into the project’s construction, purpose, costs, and intended benefits.
How The Fehmarn Belt Tunnel Is Being Built
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Established in a treaty between Denmark and Germany in 2008, the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel was passed via legislation and examined in environmental impact studies over the following 10 years. Finally initiated by King Frederik X of Denmark in June of this year, the tunnel will be constructed by the Danish company Femern A/S over the next 5 years, with an estimated completion date of 2029.
The construction process begins at Femern A/S’s onshore factory in Denmark, which will convert 360,000 metric tons (396,832 short tons) of rebar into 70 standard and 10 special elements, each measuring 217 meters (712 feet) long and weighing 73,500 metric tons (81,020 short tons), over the next 3.5 years. Once an element is completed, it will have waterproof bulkheads fitted on both ends.
The elements will then be towed to the dredged-out trench in the Fehmarn Belt strait, lowered into the seabed with high precision, and the water pumped out of them so the external water pressure pushes the bulkheads together and creates waterproof seals. Once all the elements have been successfully assembled, the construction contractors will begin installing technical and mechanical infrastructure, including railway tracks, signage, communication systems, cameras, emergency entrances and exits, and more.
What Places The Tunnel Will Connect
Running for 18 kilometers (11.1 miles) underwater through the Fehmarn Belt strait in the Baltic Sea, the tunnel will connect Puttgarden, a village and harbor on the German island of Fehmarn, and Rødbyhavn, a village and harbor on the Danish island of Lollard. Since it will include two double-lane motorways and two electrified rail tracks, both car drivers and train passengers can use the tunnel to travel between the two harbor cities in 10 or 7 minutes, respectively. Using the current railway infrastructure, a train ride from Hamburg, Germany, to Copenhagen, Denmark, takes around 4.5 hours; when completed, this tunnel will cut that time down to 2.5 hours.
As part of the European TEN-T (Trans-European Transport Network) initiative, this tunnel will also become the shortest, most direct route between Central Europe and Scandinavia. Currently, private and commercial traffic traveling from Germany to the Scandinavian Peninsula or vice versa must take the ferry across the Fehmarn Belt Strait or a longer route along bridges between the islands of Zealand and Funen and the Jutland Peninsula. This tunnel, however, will create a land route between Sweden and Central Europe that’s 160 kilometers (99.4 miles) shorter than either route currently available.
What The Tunnel’s Economic Costs and Benefits Are
The largest engineering project ever undertaken in Denmark, the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel, is estimated to cost 55 billion Danish kroner (7.9 billion United States dollars) in total. Since the European Union views the project as an important part of its infrastructure modernization programs, the EU Commission has granted the project 1.1 billion euros (8.2 billion Danish kroner or 1.1 billion United States dollars) during its construction phase. The revenue generated from people using the tunnel will be used to repay the loans that financed its construction.
Both Jens Ole Kaslund, a technical director at Femern A/S, and Michael Svane of the Confederation of Danish Industry believe the tunnel will significantly boost national and international businesses and economies. Besides the over 2,500 people the project will employ, the completed tunnel will also allow freight trucks and trains to save time and energy by traveling on a more efficient route between Germany and Scandinavia.
How The Tunnel Will Affect the Environment
Several environmental groups in Germany have opposed the project for years. They’ve expressed concerns about its ecological impact, both on the islands’ coastal communities and the Baltic Sea’s biodiversity, which is already in a perilous ecological condition due to climate change, pollution, and overfishing. They’ve also questioned whether the project truly meets the EU Commission’s environmental standards since the tunnel will include four road lanes and road traffic is the intended means for generating revenue to refinance the construction loans.
Addressing these concerns on the official project website, Femern A/S has detailed its plans for creating new nature-friendly green areas to offset the impacts of construction and running the tunnel using clean energy resources. To restore ecosystems that native wildlife depend on, the company has been working to restore 42 hectares (104 acres) of stone reefs that were disrupted by the stone dredging in the Fehmarn strait and is planning to create 60 hectares (148 acres) of new natural landscapes and forests on Lolland Island.
The company also describes different ways it plans for the tunnel to be climate-friendly and carbon-neutral. The tunnel will be built to meet German, Danish, and European environmental standards. Its construction sites will use alternative fuels and practice sustainable behaviors. It will run on green energy procured via green Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) and accommodate current and future green vehicles. The company also states that the route will make it more appealing for companies to transport freight via electric trains rather than gas-powered lorries (trucks) and thus reduce CO2 emissions.
Final Thoughts
As a massive infrastructure project, the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel will have a major impact on transportation between Germany and Denmark and between Central Europe and Scandinavia once it’s completed in 2029. This eventual longest road and rail tunnel in the world will allow passenger and freight vehicles to travel from Germany to Denmark to Sweden in half the time it currently takes.
Though the project costs billions of kroner, dollars, and euros, the German and Danish governments, the European Union, and the contractors building the tunnel are confident that it will benefit local and national economies and reduce carbon emissions from transportation. Whether or not it meets up to their lofty ambitions, the Fehmarn Belt Tunnel will spark a major shift in the paths German and Danish cars and trains travel.
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