Skip to main content

New study suggests Fehmarn Belt payback close to 50 years

A study by Danish consultant Hans Schjær-Jacobsen has shown that the payback period for the proposed Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link tunnel project between Denmark and Germany will be close to 50 years. This is a decade longer than estimated by the developers of the project which focusses on a 17km immersed tunnel, the study noted. The Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link will connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. The 17km tunnel, including two railway tunnels, two motorway tunnels and an
October 9, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
A study by Danish consultant Hans Schjær-Jacobsen has shown that the payback period for the proposed Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link tunnel project between Denmark and Germany will be close to 50 years.

This is a decade longer than estimated by the developers of the project which focusses on a 17km immersed tunnel, the study noted.

The Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link will connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. The 17km tunnel, including two railway tunnels, two motorway tunnels and an emergency tunnel, will cross the Fehmarn Belt, or Fehmarn Strait, in the Baltic Sea.

Also, driver fees alone are unlikely to be sufficient for the financing of the link. Danish taxpayers will likely have to contribute to the project. More research is needed to pinpoint the finer details of the project whose estimated cost has been rising over the past year.

The Fehmarn Belt immersed tunnel project was approved by the Danish parliament in April 2015. It is supposed to be built, owned - apart from the German land works - and operated by a Danish state agency called Femern, a subsidiary of Sund & Bælt Holding, and financed by loans guaranteed by the Danish government.

The loans are scheduled to be amortised by income from users of the tunnel which is planned to be open at the beginning of 2022. But the project continues to face obstacles, not least obtainable large enough subsidies from the European Union, total construction costs and approval by German authorities.

Government authorities in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein recently indicated that permission for the project, will probably be given in 2017, and not in 201, as previously believed. German authorities have received about 3,100 objections to the project that has risen in cost to around €8.6 billion.

The completion of the project might therefore be delayed from 2021 to 2027.

World Highways reported in February that the Danish government was talking to contractors over the latest rise, a jump of €1.2 billion, in cost estimates for entire project. Contractors estimated an extra €295.5 million will be needed. This is in addition to a statement last November by the contracting company Femern saying that costs had risen nearly by €900 million.

Related Content

  • Deutsche Bank and Akbank among banks to fund Gebze-Izmir motorway
    March 19, 2015
    A final financing agreement for Turkey's 421km Gebze-Izmir motorway project will be signed by nine banks, eight of which will be Turkish, in April. The agreement will be for around US$4.73 billion of the deal likely to cost in total more than $6 billion and which is the country’s largest public-private partnership project. The banks are Deutsche Bank and Turkish banks Akbank, Garanti Bankasi, Finansbank, Is Bankasi, Halkbank, Ziraat Bankasi, Yapi Kredi and Vakfbank. Work has been going on since 2010 for the
  • Questions and delays afflict some key Indonesian transport project
    March 28, 2014
    Indonesia’s transport expansion programme is seeing new projects commence, but others afflicted by questions over feasibility and delays. Questions over the economic feasibility of the proposed Sunda Strait Bridge project have been raised by the Public Works Ministry. This mega-project is intended to provide a road link between Sumatra and Java. But construction of the 30km structure could cost up to US$23 billion and might not be fully recovered, even if the investor collects toll fees under a 100-year con
  • New Penang Bridge takes shape
    April 10, 2012
    Construction work on the longest bridge in Malaysia and South-East Asia is well underway. Malaysia and South-East Asia is well underway. When completed, the cable-stayed bridge will have a two-lane carriageway and a motorcycle lane in each direction, and will connect Batu Kawan on the mainland to Seberang Perai and Batu Maung on Penang Island. The main span will be 250m long with a length over water of 17km and a 30m height above the water. Costing an estimated US$1.5 billion the 24km long bridge is being b
  • New Penang Bridge takes shape
    May 9, 2012
    Construction work on the longest bridge in Malaysia and South-East Asia is well underway. Malaysia and South-East Asia is well underway. When completed, the cable-stayed bridge will have a two-lane carriageway and a motorcycle lane in each direction, and will connect Batu Kawan on the mainland to Seberang Perai and Batu Maung on Penang Island. The main span will be 250m long with a length over water of 17km and a 30m height above the water. Costing an estimated US$1.5 billion the 24km long bridge is being b