The construction of an astonishing 18 km-long tunnel known as Fehmarnbelt, and at that, a prefabricated road and rail tunnel, is underway beneath the Baltic Sea, linking Denmark and Germany.
The €7.4bn project, mostly funded by Denmark with €1.3bn from the European Commission, hopes to cut travel times and better Scandinavian connectivity with central Europe with the longest ever undersea tunnel. Due to open in 2029, it will reduce the Rødbyhavn-Puttgarten journey from a 45-minute ferry to 10 minutes by car or seven by train and halve Copenhagen-Hamburg rail travel to 2.5 hours.
On Denmark’s Lolland island, the 500-hectare construction site features a factory producing 90 massive 217-metre-long, 73,000-tonne tunnel elements. These are towed and immersed 40m into a seafloor trench with 15mm precision, a feat described as ‘Lego-like’ by Femern CEO Henrik Vincentsen. Unlike traditional tunnels, Fehmarnbelt’s elements rest on the seafloor due to soft clay and chalk bedrock.
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Although there has been intense opposition from ferry operators and German conservationists, who cited ecological concerns for Baltic wildlife, a 2020 court ruling cleared the way for the construction. Mitigation includes a 300-hectare wetland reserve. The tunnel, with dual road and rail tubes plus an emergency corridor, is expected to serve 12,000 cars and 100 trains daily, facilitating jobs and tourism in Lolland while cutting transport emissions.