Analysis: 21 days that reveal the mistrust in the Fehmarn construction

FemernBusiness has in recent weeks uncovered a collaboration on the Femern construction project that is under significant pressure. Internal status reports, financial demands in the billions, and an increasing legalisation of the dialogue paint a picture of a project where disagreements about time, responsibility, and progress are increasingly prominent. At the same time, the project has entered the most critical phase, where the submersion of the tunnel elements will hopefully soon begin, and where decisions made now will have consequences for many years to come. It is in this context that the tone between the client, the main contractor, and the state has become an independent theme. 

When the managing director of the main contractor, Femern Link Contractors, Sébastien Bliaut, chooses to bypass the regular partner and instead writes directly to the Ministry of Transport's permanent secretary, Jakob Heinsen, it is a break with the way a construction project worth 67 billion DKK is normally managed. It is a signal that something is not working in the collaboration behind Denmark's largest construction project, precisely at a time when the project is facing several years of delay, billion-dollar demands, and crucial negotiations about the further course. And Bliaut is not just anyone. He sits at the head of the table in FLC because he is a manager at VINCI, the largest stakeholder in the international consortium building the tunnel.

The mistrust did not arise with Bliaut's approach. It has grown over a longer period, as delays have increased and disagreements have become more fundamental. Outwardly, the parties still talk about technology, regulatory requirements, and progress. Internally, the discussions increasingly focus on who is responsible and who will ultimately bear the cost of a project that has already strayed far from the original schedule.

Reaction or overreaction

In this situation, it is not insignificant who talks to whom. Femern A/S is the client and formally responsible for the daily management of the project, but that part has largely fallen under Sund & Bælt's new construction unit. Femern Link Contractors is the contracting party and is to deliver the tunnel. When the chief executive of the main contractor chooses to bypass that level and address the Ministry of Transport directly, it says something about the relations between the parties. It is an expression that trust in the normal cooperation structure has weakened.

The reaction from the ministry does not make the picture any less serious. When the permanent secretary, in a written response, questions whether the consortium is capable of completing the project, it is, of course, serious, but also completely unnecessary and in no way constructive. It is an unusually sharp message from the civil service, which places the conflict at a level where it is no longer just about contractual matters, but also about the state's trust in the actor tasked with handling the most critical part of the construction and by far the largest part of the contract.

Femern in crisis: Serious doubts about main contractor

The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Transport intervenes in the Femern conflict and writes in a direct response to the main contractor's director that there are concerns about whether the consortium can complete the project.

When Bliaut's subsequent response is withdrawn by the top management of the consortium, it underscores how tense the situation is. It seems like an attempt to calm a conflict that has already moved beyond the usual. But the withdrawal does not change the fact that the words have been written, read, and archived. And it does not change the fact that the parties still face the same unresolved questions about the schedule, tunnel trench, vessels, and finances. It is clear from Bliaut's response to Heinsen that he believes Sund & Bælt's role is problematic and that it is selective what is passed on to the ministry, the settlement circle behind the construction, and the parliamentary transport committee.

Negotiating right now

This is precisely what makes the situation problematic. The negotiations about the further course are taking place right now. With Sund & Bælt at the head of the table at one end and FLC at the other end. They are taking place in a climate where each party has documented mistrust of the other, and where every technical discussion also contains a strategic layer.

When cooperation reaches this point, it becomes more difficult to find solutions that both parties can live with. The risk that all disagreements will be kicked into the corner and end in a huge arbitration case is a real risk. This is known from the construction of the Storstrøm Bridge and the Metro in Copenhagen. The City Ring was completed in 2019, but a financial claim of 5.9 billion is still not settled and is currently part of an arbitration case that may take several years to resolve.

Analysis: Who will pay for the delays in the Femern construction?

Time has become the most expensive factor in Denmark's largest construction project, where two conflicts now determine who ends up with the bill.

For the state, the dilemma is clear. On one hand, there is a responsibility to hold the contractor to the contract and protect taxpayers' money. On the other hand, there is an equally clear need to move the project forward before delays and conflicts grow even larger. In this tension, trust is not a soft concept but a prerequisite for decisions to be made quickly and implemented effectively.

The Fehmarn connection is therefore in a phase where the challenges are not only on the seabed in the form of irregularities in the tunnel trench or lack of vessel approvals. They also lie in the relationships between the people and institutions that must safely guide the project through the next crucial years. And right there, the picture is currently anything but reassuring. The period from 19 November to 10 December shows this very clearly.