The standard tunnel that is built from Denmark to Germany

A standard tunnel is built under the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany, which will lead to reducing travel times and improving the links of Scandinavia with the rest of Europe.

Fehmarnbet runs for a distance of 18 km (11 miles), it will be the longest road and tunnel of the railway in the world.

It is also a great achievement of engineering, he will see slices of tunnel placed on the sea floor, then join together.

The main construction site of the project is located at the northern entrance to the tunnel, on the coast of Loland Island in southeast Denmark.

The facility extends more than 500 hectares (1235 acres), and includes a port and factory that manufactures the tunnel sections, which are called “elements”.

“It is a huge facility here,” says Henrik Vincen, CEO of FEMERN, the state -owned Danish company that builds the tunnel.

To make every 217 meters (712 feet) and 42 meters wide, reinforced steel is thrown with concrete.

Most of the underwater tunnels – including the 50 km channel tunnel between the United Kingdom and France – the hole on the basis under the sea floor. Instead, 90 individual elements, piece, like LEGO BRICKS will be connected.

“We are cutting the records with this project,” says Mr. Vinsen. “The tunnels tunnels have been built before, but on this range never.”

Thanks to the price of about 7.4 billion euros (8.1 billion dollars; 6.3 billion pounds), the scheme was mostly funded by Denmark, with 1.3 billion euros from the European Commission.

It is among the largest infrastructure projects in the region, and part of the broader European Union plan to enhance travel ties across the continent while reducing aviation.

Once you are completed, the journey between R rupyhavn in the south of Denmark and Butagertin in northern Germany will take only 10 minutes by car, or seven minutes by train, to replace the ferry journey for 45 minutes.

After the Western Denmark, the new railway will also take half of the travel times between Copenhagen and Hamburg from five to 2.5 hours, and provides a “more green” abbreviation for shipping and passengers.

“It not only connects Denmark to Germany, but rather it connects the Scandinavian countries with Central Europe,” says Mr. Vinson. “Everyone is a winner,” as he claims. “By traveling less than 160 km, you will also cut carbon and reduce the effect of transportation.”

The entrance to the tunnel, which was raised by the cranes, sits at the base of a sharp coastal wall with the sparkling sea water.

“Now we are in the first part of the tunnel,” the chief construction director Anders Gert Wade announced, and we are walking inside the highway in the future. It is one of five parallel tubes in each element.

There are two types of railways, two roads (which have two corridors in each direction), maintenance and emergency corridor.

At the other end, the huge steel doors are prevented. “As you can hear, it is very thick,” says the metal. “When we have a final component in the port, it will be pulled to the site, then we will slowly dip behind the steel doors here.”

These elements are not only long, but they are very heavy, as they weigh more than 73,000 tons. But incredibly, the closure of the limbs is anti -leakage and installed with the pouring cabinets, gives enough toilet to pull them behind the drip boats.

After that, it is a complicated scene, which reduces the elements 40 meters away to a trench dug on the sea floor, using underwater cameras and GPS equipment, to line up with a resolution of 15 mm.

“We must be very careful,” Mr. Wade asserts. “We have a system called” PIN and Catch “where you have a V -shaped structure and some weapons that hold the element, and slowly withdraw it in place.

Denmark sits at the mouth of the Baltic Sea, along the sea with crowded charging corridors.

With layers of clay and the basis of chalk, the surface is very soft so that the cavity tunnel cannot dig.

The bridge was considered at the beginning, but strong winds may disrupt traffic, and security was another important.

“There was a risk of ships in the bridges. We can build the bridge so that they can withstand.” “But this is somewhat deep water, and the largest ships can sail there.”

Thus, Mr. Goldman adds, it was decided to go with an immersed tunnel. They looked at her and said, “Well, what’s cheaper? The tunnel. What is the safest? The tunnel.

Denmark and Germany signed an agreement to build the tunnel in 2008, but the plan was delayed by the opposition from the German phrases and conservative groups concerned with the environmental impact.

One of these environmental groups, NABU (Union for the Preservation of Biodiversity) has argued that this area of ​​the Baltic is an important homeland for the hands and portions of the port, which is sensitive to underwater noise.

However, their legal challenge was rejected in 2020 by a federal court in Germany, which lit green lighting to move forward.

“We have made many initiatives to ensure that the impact of this project is as small as possible,” says Mr. Vinson, referring to the nature of the wet lands and the recreational area that was planned on the reclaimed lands.

When the tunnel opens in 2029, Fork is estimated that more than 100 trains and 12,000 cars will use it every day.

According to the plans, the revenues collected from fees will be paid from the country -backed loans that have been transferred to construction financing, and Mr. Vincentsen, which will take about four decades, will be calculated. “In the end, the users will pay,” he says.

It is also hoped that the huge investment will enhance jobs, business and tourism in Loland, one of the poorest regions of Denmark.

“The locals here were waiting for this project unlike years,” said Mr. Wade, who grew up nearby. “They are looking for companies coming to the region.”