An 18 kilometer long tunnel must connect the German island of Fehrman with Lolland, an island in Denmark within a few years. The so-called Fehmarnbelt connection in the Baltic Sea thus becomes the longest traffic and rail tunnel in the world. After four years of building, the cost is 7.4 billion euros.
Where the original delivery was planned for 2024, this left years ago to 2029. In addition to a double railway line, a four -lane road is laid in the tunnel. The tunnel shortens the travel time between the German and Danish coast to ten minutes by car and seven minutes by train, compared to the current travel time of one hour by ferry.
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Anyone who wants to trace from Germany’s second largest city of Hamburg (1.9 million inhabitants) to the Danish capital Copenhagen, have to go out for five hours for that. In the future that will only take 2.5 hours. Once completed, another record will die: the Fehmarnbelt connection is from then on the longest sunken away- a rail tunnel in the world. Tunnel segments are built in a dry dock that once realized, to the place where the tunnel is dragged. After this they are lowered to the seabed. In June 2024, the Danish King Frederik baptized the first tunnel part. In total there will be 89 tunnel parts.
Aerial photo of where the tunnel will be between Fehrman (bottom left) and Lolland (top right)
Boost for tourism
The Danish government expects the connection to give tourism throughout Scandinavia and in East Denmark in particular a big boost. Foreign tourists now often limit themselves to Copenhagen. Long before the start before the construction, the project was the subject of legal proceedings. Ferry services fear their survival and environmental activists fear that the Fehrmanbelt will disrupt marine life.
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