New submerged tunnel will link Denmark and Germany

Denmark has approved the construction of the Femern Belt Link, an immersed or submerged tunnel that will link two islands belonging to Denmark and Germany.

Image: Femern A/S

This $7.6 billion project, which was first announced in 2015, was meant to be completed by 2024, but has only now been given the green light.

The new tunnel will connect the Danish town of Rødbyhavn on the island of Lolland and the northern German island of Fehmarn off the Baltic Sea. In what The National calls this project a ‘rare cross-border initiative’, the new submerged tunnel will be unlike other popular linkages such as the Channel Tunnel (Britain-France), which is under the seabed.

Image: Femern A/S

The Femern Belt Link will consist of an 18-kilometre-long rail and road tunnel with an electrified double-track railway and a four-lane motorway. Unlike bored tunnels, immersed or submerged tunnels are constructed using hollow concrete elements, and are cast on land and assembled section by section at sea to form the tunnel.

Construction is set to begin in from 1 January 2021 with the intention of opening for public use in 2029.

Image: Femern A/S

Sources: Reuters and Femern A/S

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