Europe’s Fehmarnbelt Tunnel: A New Underwater Marvel

In 2029, Europe will see the unveiling of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, an impressive engineering marvel. This underwater road and rail link will span 11.2 miles across the Baltic Sea, connecting Germany and Denmark. It’s a joint project by Femern A/S, Rambøll, Arup, and TEC, aiming to be the world’s longest and deepest immersed tunnel for road and rail traffic.

The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel will connect Rødbyhavn in Denmark with Fehmarn in Germany, creating the shortest route between Scandinavia and mainland Europe. This will significantly reduce travel times, offering a seven-minute train journey or a ten-minute car drive, compared to the current 45-minute ferry ride.

The project’s scale is impressive. Around 360,000 tonnes of rebar will be used, almost 50 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower’s metal structure. The Danish construction site alone is as big as 373 football pitches, with nearly 70 vessels dredging the tunnel trench and removing about 12 million cubic meters of seabed soil.

The tunnel will consist of 79 standard sections, each weighing about 73,000 tonnes, and 10 special sections. Standard sections will be 217 meters long, 42 meters wide, and 10 meters high, while the special sections will be more compact but slightly wider and taller. These sections will be built on land, floated into place, and then submerged and anchored on the seabed at a depth of 40 meters.

The project’s budget is around DKK8.4 billion (approximately US$1.2 billion). The first tunnel segment was inaugurated by Denmark’s King Frederik X and will soon be submerged.

This remarkable project is not only a significant engineering feat but also promises to transform travel and trade between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.