visualizing the impacts of
europe's biggest construction site

The Fehmarnbelt Fixed link is a Construction Project that aims to connect Germany and Denmark via the Fehmarnbelt by building an immersed Tunnel (instead of a bridge). It will be the first of its kind at that kind of a length. The goal is to bring Copenhagen closer to main land Europe by shortening the travel distance and thereby travel time.

What is it?

Overview

Construction method

The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel will be constructed by towing pre-fabricated tunnel segments and sinking them into place. The segments are sealed, so only the seam between the segments needs to be pumped out to create a watertight connection.

This process can only take place if the weather is favourable and there is no wind. The positioning of the 73,000 tonne tunnel segments must be accurate to the millimetre so that the seal is perfect and secure.

Factory

The tunnel segments will be manufactured in a factory located on the coast near Rødby. The production process will consist of 3 stages:

  1. rebar and casting of the segments

  2. transporting the finished segments
    to the dock and sealing them

  3. filling of the dock with water and
    transport to the installation site

the completed tunnel will consist of

tunnel segments

Tunnel segments

79

building the tunnel will need the same amount of steel as

eiffel towers

Steel used

50

building the tunnel will need a factory with the same area as

140

football fields

Factory area

learn more about the factory

once it's done…

Due to 12.000 cars per day driving the shorter route from Hamburg to Copenhagen they won't be driving
160 km they would otherwise need to.
So every 29.2s a 50-l-tank of gas
will be saved.

every 29.2s
a tank of gas
will be saved

Of course this calculation does not take into account the traffic this tunnel will produce due to it motivating people to "quickly do the journey" that would otherwise just not go there.

costs

distance

km

335

€

147

Hamburg to Copenhagen

ferry

details of the journey

ferry: 147€
from 105€
gas 42€

Route comparison

43€

for this tunnel.

every German has paid

How much did every Danish citizen pay?

43€

for this tunnel.

every German has paid

Costs

WRONG!

So,

What do YOU think?

good.

bad.

website by Jan Mróz, Deniz Oelschläger and Katharina Neugart

documentation