Rush to build the world's longest undersea road and rail tunnel

TPO - The world's longest undersea road and rail tunnel, located 40m deep under the Baltic Sea, will connect Denmark and Germany, shortening travel time between the two countries.

The undersea tunnel will connect Denmark and Germany after it opens in 2029.

The first tunnel section of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel was inaugurated by King Frederik X of Denmark on June 17, marking an important milestone after four years of construction since 2020, with more than a decade of planning prior to that.

On the Danish side, east of Rødbyhavn, the plant will build the 89 giant concrete sections that make up the tunnel that was completed last year. Fermern A/S, the Danish state-owned company in charge of the project, says it has used state-of-the-art technology to build the tunnel.

The 18-km tunnel is one of Europe's largest infrastructure projects, with a construction budget of more than $7.1 billion.

The route will be built across the Fehmarn Belt, a strait between the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland, and is designed as an alternative to the current ferry service from Rødby and Puttgarden, which carries millions of passengers each year. The route currently takes 45 minutes by ferry, but will take just seven minutes by train and 10 minutes by car.

In comparison, the 50-km Channel Tunnel linking England and France (almost three times as long), completed in 1993, cost the equivalent of $13.6 billion in today’s dollars (almost twice as much). Although longer than the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, the Channel Tunnel was built using boring machines, rather than embedding pre-built tunnel sections.

Faster journey than before

The tunnel, officially called the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link, will also be the longest combined road and rail tunnel in the world. It will include two two-lane motorways and two electric railway tracks.

“Today, if you take the train from Copenhagen (Denmark) to Hamburg (Germany), it takes about four and a half hours,” said Jens Ole Kaslund, technical director at Femern A/S. “When the tunnel is completed, the same journey will take two and a half hours.”

In addition to the benefits for passenger trains and cars, the tunnel will also have a positive impact on trucks and freight trains because it creates a road route between Sweden and Central Europe that is 160 km shorter than it is today, Kaslund said.

Currently, traffic between Scandinavia and Germany via Denmark can be taken by ferry across the Fehmarnbelt or by the longer route via bridges connecting the islands of Zealand, Funen and the Jutland peninsula.

The tunnel will be built using six production lines. The sections will be placed just below the seabed, about 40 metres below sea level at its deepest point, and moved into place by barges and cranes. Up to 2,500 people will be directly involved in the construction project.

Ha Thu

According to CNN

Source: https://tienphong.vn/hoi-ha-xay-ham-duong-bo-va-duong-sat-duoi-bien-dai-nhat-the-gioi-post1651796.tpo