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

  • Fehmarn Belt Tunnel opening set for mid-2029
    August 16, 2024
    Around 1,500 tonnes of reinforcement for casting the concrete tunnel elements are produced weekly for the 17.6km Fehmarn Belt Tunnel that will connect the Danish island of Lolland with the German island of Fehmarn.
  • Work to start on Fehmarn Belt link to start in autumn
    April 4, 2019
    Construction of the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link between Denmark and Germany should start this autumn for completion in 2028, according to the Danish government. Danish company Femern, which is responsible for the construction of the link, will begin negotiations with two contractor consortiums for the first of the project’s works which will start on the Danish side. A tunnel element fabrication yard and a works harbour must be built in Rødbyhavn, as well as a tunnel portal on Lolland. An autumn start wou
  • Aarhus stops some road works over price hikes
    June 1, 2022
    The Danish city of Aarhus says it is shutting down some roadworks as prices rise for aggregates.
  • Peri delivers formwork for Fehmarnbelt Tunnel
    July 12, 2023
    The last of the 12 ships delivering Peri’s formwork recently arrived at the tunnel element factory east of Rødbyhavn on Denmark’s Lolland island.