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

  • IRF Washington Names its 2016 Industry Professional of the Year:
    October 18, 2016
    Malaysia’s Minister of Works receives IRF’s top award. YB Dato’ Sri Haji Fadillah bin Haji Yusof, Minister of Works and one of the chief architects behind Malaysia’s spectacular highway investment programme has been nominated to receive IRF’s most distinguished individual honor. Established in 1951, IRF’s Professional of the Year award recognises eminent public, private and education sector professionals with an outstanding track record of leadership and commitment to the road transport industry. Over the y
  • Asphalt milling optimised by 3D controls
    February 20, 2012
    3D machine controls can optimise milling efficiency, Mike Woof reports. More efficient milling and recycling operations can be carried out by using the latest 3D control systems on the market. At the last Trimble Dimensions event in Las Vegas, the advantages of 3D controls for milling operations proved a key topic. The use of 3D control systems can offer huge advantages in milling operations. This technology helps increase productivity as the milling machine will only remove what is required, which also hel
  • Slovakia’s D1 Budimir-Bidovce motorway stretch gets EU backing
    November 2, 2018
    Slovakia’s motorway company NDS and the Transport Ministry have agreed a subsidy of nearly €204 million for a D1 section. The EU will cover 85% of the project cost, while the remaining 15% will be covered by the government for construction the 14.5km D1 motorway between Budimir and Bidovce, near the city of Kosice. The section, being built by Skanska for almost €237 million, is on schedule for completion by the end of 2019. The stretch will be part of the eastern by-pass of Kosice and in Budimir it wi
  • UK road safety gain during pandemic
    October 14, 2021
    The UK has seen a road safety gain during the pandemic.