Skip to main content

Costs revised for Denmark’s proposed Kattegat Bridge

A proposed bridge across the Kattegat Sea in northern Europe would be cheaper for the Danish government than previously expected, according to an engineering report. The bridge between Denmark’s Jutland and Zealand islands would need around €2.02 billion in government subsidies, noted the report from Danish engineering consultancy Rambøll. A previous report from the Ministry of Transport concluded that subsidies would have to be around €6.85 billion and need to be financed by loans. This caused the mi
May 9, 2016 Read time: 3 mins
A proposed bridge across the Kattegat Sea in northern Europe would be cheaper for the Danish government than previously expected, according to an engineering report.

The bridge between Denmark’s Jutland and Zealand islands would need around €2.02 billion in government subsidies, noted the report from Danish engineering consultancy Rambøll.

A previous report from the Ministry of Transport concluded that subsidies would have to be around €6.85 billion and need to be financed by loans. This caused the ministry to shelve the planning process for the bridge which would have been open by 2030.

The Kattegat is a shallow 30,000km2 sea between Denmark and Sweden’s southwest coast. It can be very difficult and dangerous to navigate because of many reefs and shifting currents. Nonetheless, the Kattegat is an important commercial navigation passage as well as a popular summer vacation area.

The proposed Kattegat Bridge – in effect, two sections – would cover 35km to link Jutland and Zealand and possibly have a rail line.

The ministry’s report expected average traffic growth would be 1.25% annually between 2020 and 2030, with loan rates or around 3%.

However, Rambøll’s assessment is based on traffic increases of around 2.2% annually and loan interest rates or 2%.

A new bridge would take some of the traffic from the nearby and often heavily congested Great Belt Fixed Link between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. The Great Belt consists of three structures: a road suspension bridge and a railway tunnel between Zealand and the small island Sprogø located in the middle of the Great Belt, and a box girder bridge for both road and rail traffic between Sprogø and Funen.

An earlier report by 6801 Ramboll, in July 2007, found that 60% of peope in a poll favoured construction of a bridge over the Kattegat, up from 47% earlier that year. Ramboll also commented at the time that people were “much more positive about a Kattegat project than the proposed Fehmarn Bridge”, according to a report by the Copenhagen Post newspaper.

The Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link will connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. A 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. Both governments are putting the project together.

The Danish political parties behind the Fehmarnbelt link have mandated 4782 Femern A/S to appoint preferred bidders for the main tunnel work in order to enter into conditional contracts no later than mid-May.

Femern A/S is the Danish government-owned company managing the Fehmarn Belt immersed tunnel project between Denmark and Germany. It is supposed to be built, owned - apart from the German land works - and operated by Femern A/S, a subsidiary of Sund & Bælt Holding, and financed by loans guaranteed by the Danish government.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Via Nordica turns international
    July 31, 2012
    Via Nordica, the road technology conference of the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) has changed from the traditional Nordic event to become more international The conference, held every four years, rotates between the five countries, and the 2008 event, held in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, was a clear demonstration of the international trend. An accompanying exhibition attracted more than 70 companies and organisations from 14 countries. Pär-Håkan Appel, the secretary g
  • Melbourne link: Hyder and Parsons Brinckerhoff to be design team
    October 22, 2014
    Hyder and Parsons Brinckerhoff have been appointed as the design team for the US$5.97 billion East West Link in Melbourne, Australia. The two engineering and management consultancies are in a 50/50 joint venture to provide detailed design and construction support services for the 6.6km Stage 1 work, which is the eastern section, of the project. Together with the proposed western section, the completed East West Link will cost around $7 billion. The toll road will form an 18km cross-city connection ext
  • Norway’s record breaking undersea road tunnel
    February 25, 2015
    The world's deepest road tunnel is currently in construction near Stavanger in Norway but is only the prelude to even larger projects - report and photographs by Adrian Greeman. Norway's convoluted coastline of fjords and high mountains is famously scenic but also a major problem for transport and connections. The country has long experience of constructing tunnels as a result. Now a series of tunnels underway, or in design, around the oil industry city of Stavanger will stretch its skills more than usual.
  • New Thames River bridge crossing proposed for UK capital London
    July 2, 2014
    Plans are once more being put forward for a new bridge spanning the River Thames in East London. The proposed structure is expected to cost in the region of €750 million (£600 million) to build and has been designed by Arup and HOK. The campaign for the new bridge is being led by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), which says that there is a desperate need for an additional crossing. The campaign group also has the support of City Airport, which lies on the north side of the Thames and would