The Fehmarnbelt tunnel, currently under construction, is set to revolutionize transportation between Denmark and Germany. This 18km long rail and road tunnel will significantly reduce travel time from 45 minutes to just 7-10 minutes. Built by Femern A/S, Rambøll, Arup, and TEC, the tunnel will be the world’s longest and deepest submerged tube tunnel with combined rail and road capabilities.
The construction of this massive undertaking has been a Herculean task, requiring 360,000 tons of reinforcing bars, nearly 50 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower’s metal structure. The construction site on the Danish side covers an area as large as 373 football fields. The dredging operation for the 18 km long tunnel involves up to 70 ships. In total, about 12 million m3 of soil has been excavated from the seabed.
The Fehmarnbelt tunnel consists of 79 standard sections and 10 special sections, each weighing around 73,000 tons. The standard sections are 217m long, 42m wide, and 10m high, while the special sections are slightly wider and taller but smaller in length. These tunnel sections are prefabricated on land and then transported by barge before being submerged and sealed on the seabed at depths of up to 40m.
With a construction cost of approximately $1.2 billion, this ambitious project is expected to be completed by
