COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish King Frederik the sector.
The Fehmarn connection, expected to open in 2029, will also reduce the number of journeys from the current 45-minute ferry crossing from Roedby on the Danish side to Puttgarten in Germany and connect by road and rail with Central Europe and the Scandinavian countries.
Frederik unveiled a plaque at the entrance to the first 217-meter section of the tunnel, which will be immersed in a seabed trench on the Danish side later this year. He dropped a coin near his image in a time capsule containing items donated by those who built the concrete elements.
Sund & Baelt, the company building the Fehmarn connection, claims it will be the longest underwater tunnel. There will also be an electrified track. Cars are expected to be able to cross the Baltic Sea in ten minutes on the four lanes and trains in seven minutes.
In 2011 it was decided that a connection between the southern Danish island of Lolland and the northern German island of Fehmarn would be constructed as a submerged tunnel. Work on the Danish side was put into operation in July 2022, and on the German side exactly one year later.
The tunnel will consist of 89 concrete elements that will be built in a special factory in Roedbyhavn on Lolland, the largest construction site in Northern Europe. The first element was cast in May.
The Fehmarn connection will cost 55.1 billion kroner ($8 billion) and will be paid for by users in Denmark. The Danish government will decide on the toll for the tunnel at a later stage.
In recent years, Denmark has built road and rail connections with neighboring Sweden and between two large Danish islands.
In 2000, a bridge-and-tunnel link across the Øresund Strait connected Copenhagen to Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö, and in 1998 road traffic was opened between the islands of Funen, where Odense – Denmark’s third largest city – is located, and Zealand, where Copenhagen is located. Train traffic started there a year earlier.
