According to regional media reports, the Fehmarnbelt tunnel between the Danish island of Lolland and the German island of Fehmarn, which is already under construction, is affected by delays, as is the much shorter tunnel planned to connect Fehmarn with the Schleswig-Holstein mainland. The Fehmarnsund tunnel will replace the existing ageing bridge, which has already become a bottleneck for traffic.
Commodity prices to blame for cost explosion
According to information from NDR, the costs for the 1.8 kilometre long tunnel under the Fehmarnsund now calculated at 2.3 billion euros. The original estimate was 714 million euros. The tripling of the sum is due to increased raw material prices, among other things.
The Fehmarnsund Tunnel is to accommodate four lanes for road traffic and two tracks for rail traffic. According to the Federal Railway Authority, completion is now only expected after three to four years of construction. The tunnel, together with the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, was originally scheduled to open in 2029.
Special ship still waiting for approval
However, the actual core project of the Fehmarnbelt link itself, the 18 kilometre long Fehmarnbelt tunnelThe reason given by Femern, the Danish project company commissioned with planning and construction, which in turn is part of the Danish state holding company Sund & Bælt, is problems with the specialised ship "Ivy".
The 100 metre long vehicle for lowering the tunnel elements was specially developed for the construction of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, but has not yet been fully tested and approved by the authorities. At present, the project is already 18 months behind the original schedule.
German requirements for Fehmarnbelt link
However, it is questionable whether the lost time can still be made up for. At the time the contract was signed, the German side had not yet received final authorisation. Some of the requirements on the German side, for example with regard to the underwater noise of the working vessels, only came into effect later.
"The contracts are almost ten years old and were concluded before the coronavirus pandemic or the war in Ukraine broke out. And we didn't know the full extent of the German authorities' requirements at the time," says Mikkel Hemmingsen, CEO of Sund & Bælt.
With a length of 18 kilometres, the Fehmarnbelt tunnel will be the longest immersed tunnel in the world, even if the date of completion is still unclear. However, at least the expansion of the railway connection on the Danish side to the capital Copenhagen is on schedule.
