Skip to main content

Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link could open by 2025 at earliest

The ambitious Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, connecting Denmark and Germany, will open in 2025 at the earliest, according to the Danish finance ministry. Femern A/S, the Danish government-owned company managing the project, confirmed the note from the government. It also said the ministry still has financial concerns over the deal to build an immersed tunnel connecting the towns of Rødby in Denmark’s southern Zealand with Puttgarden in northern Germany. Of particular is the time for a construction company t
November 27, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
The ambitious Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, connecting Denmark and Germany, will open in 2025 at the earliest, according to the Danish finance ministry.

4782 Femern A/S, the Danish government-owned company managing the project, confirmed the note from the government. It also said the ministry still has financial concerns over the deal to build an immersed tunnel connecting the towns of Rødby in Denmark’s southern Zealand with Puttgarden in northern Germany.

Of particular is the time for a construction company to receive full payback for the project because of declining traffic volume forecasts.

Financing includes European Union subsidies amounting to nearly €590 million during 2016-2019, but with delays to start of construction subsidies may be cut back.

World Highways reported in October that a study by Danish consultant Hans Schjær-Jacobsen had shown that payback period for the proposed 17km tunnel would be close to 50 years. This is a decade longer than estimated by the developers of the project, the study noted.

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

According to the study, 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 this year. 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.

World Highways also 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 in November 2014 by the contracting company Femern saying that costs had risen nearly by €900 million.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • STRABAG raises 2011 and 2012 outlook
    February 29, 2012
    After a solid first quarter 2011, STRABAG, Central and Eastern Europe’s largest construction company, has raised its outlook for the financial years 2011 and 2012.
  • Sweco lands lead consultancy on Scotland’s Cross Tay Link project
    August 17, 2017
    Engineering, environment and design consultancy Sweco UK has won the contract as the lead consultant on the Cross Tay Link Road project near Perth, Scotland. Sweco UK was appointed by Perth & Kinross Council under a €3.86 million contract as parat of the on the project whose value is around €124.5 million. Phase two of four of the Perth Transport Futures Project includes the realignment of a section of the A9 trunk road and provision of a bridge across the River Tay – the third across the river - and over t
  • Report identifies strong future demand for machines
    June 25, 2015
    According to a report from US-based research firm Freedonia, world demand for construction machinery will grow by 3.9%/year to $218 billion by 2019. The Asia/Pacific region, Central and South America, and the Africa/Mideast region are all expected to register above average gains looking ahead as construction spending, particularly on infrastructure projects, continues to increase. More than two-thirds of all additional construction equipment demand generated between 2014 and 2019 will be in China according
  • Sales down but Deutz keeps profit level in first half 2015
    August 11, 2015
    German engine maker Deutz has reported new order sales were down just over 10% in the first half of this year, to €670.7 million. Unit sales also fell, around 21% down on the first half of last year, to 78,120 engines. Sales of 41,213 engines in the second quarter of 2015 were 11.7% higher than in the previous quarter but were 24.5% lower than in prior-year quarter (Q2 2014: 54,622 engines). Revenue was in line with forecasts, falling by 11% year on year to €670.2 million compared with €753.4 million