The main contractor on the Fehmarnbelt project, Femern Link Contractors (FLC), has now immersed the third tunnel element for the 18km long Fehmarnbelt tunnel between Denmark and Germany.
The operation began on the evening of July 30 with the element being towed out from the tunnel element factory at Rødbyhavn on the Danish island of Lolland. From there, the 217m-long, and more than 73,500-tonne concrete element was towed to the tunnel trench, around 500m from the coast, by five tugboats.
The immersion began on July 31, and the following morning the element was connected to the part of the tunnel already installed. The first two elements were installed in May and June. In total, 89 elements will be immersed to create the tunnel.
“Every immersion is a highly demanding precision task involving many interdependent parts. We are therefore very pleased that another element is now safely positioned on the seabed. With each immersion, the contractor FLC gains more valuable experience that will help ensure continued progress in the construction work,” said Lasse Vester, deputy contract director at Sund & Bælt.
The installed element is now being covered with stones and gravel to secure it permanently in the tunnel trench. At the same time, preparations continue for the immersion of the next element.
The Fehmarnbelt link – the world’s longest immersed tunnel – will become a central part of the European TEN-T transport network, which brings Europe closer together from Malta in the south to Finland in the north. For this reason, each tunnel element is named after a city along the corridor.
The third element is named after the German coastal town of Heiligenhafen, which is located on the Baltic Sea in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, close to Fehmarn.
The tunnel will have a motorway with two lanes in each direction and two electrified railway tracks.
Following delays to construction of the tunnel and land facilities on the German side, the tunnel will now open in two stages. The revised plan, announced in May, means the road connection will open first, while the railway will open once the necessary facilities on the German side are in place.
