Femern shuts down for four weeks - amid uncertainty about opening in 2029

The production of tunnel elements for the Fehmarn connection will temporarily shut down in July. This is stated in an internal message from the consortium Fehmarn Link Contractors (FLC), which FemernBusiness possesses. It states that there will be a collective summer holiday for four weeks - from 7 July to 3 August - in two of the project's key areas: PFA, which covers the tunnel element factory in Rødbyhavn, and TE System, which is responsible for the technical systems around element production.

This is where the large concrete boxes are cast - the so-called tunnel elements. Each element is up to 217 metres long, weighs around 73,000 tonnes, and will be lowered one by one onto the seabed between Rødbyhavn and the island of Fehmarn in Germany. Together, they will form the 18-kilometre-long immersed tunnel under the Fehmarn Belt.

Up to 2,000 employees

The email was sent to employees three months before the enforced holiday, which is a requirement according to the Danish holiday law.

According to the message, only a few selected employees will work during the period, and they will be informed directly by 30 May at the latest. Marine activities and work on tunnel portals will continue, but casting and preparation of tunnel elements - the actual building blocks of the tunnel - will pause. In total, it concerns up to 2,000 employees who have been asked to take a four-week summer holiday.

This is the first time that production has shut down for so long. Apart from a seven-day Christmas holiday, the large elements have been produced at full speed in shifts since the factory was put into operation.

Schedule under pressure

According to Femern A/S's annual report for 2024, the opening of the connection at the end of 2029 is "significantly challenged", and the entire schedule is up for reassessment. A significant reason is that the first tunnel element has not yet been lowered into the sea - it was originally supposed to happen at the end of 2024.

By the end of the year, seven standard elements and two special elements had been cast in Rødbyhavn. A further three to five elements are expected to be completed before the summer break, and some of them have already been moved out into the basins in front of the facility.

The Femern Belt project states that the summer closure will not affect the overall schedule.

Not optimal

Nevertheless, the timing raises questions with transport economist Jan Ninnemann, professor of transport economics at the Hamburg School of Business Administration:

- At first glance, it seems remarkable to carry out such an extensive shutdown when the schedule is already under pressure. It is not optimal. But there may be factors behind the decision that we are not aware of, which could make it sensible, says Jan Ninnemann.

He is also the director of the consultancy firm MOVE4WARD Innovative Transport Solutions and has assessed the socio-economic consequences of delays on the German part of the Femern project in a number of analyses.

At Femern Link Contractors, responsible for production, the explanation is that the summer break is a planned consideration for the employees:

- Like many other industries, we have a collective holiday. To ensure that our employees get a four-week continuous - and well-deserved - summer holiday, we have informed them that they must take their holiday during the industrial holiday period, the consortium states in a written comment.

Challenges south of the border

While work in Rødbyhavn is paused for four weeks, the uncertainty on the German side of the project is even greater. Only this year has Deutsche Bahn published a plan for the new tunnel under the Fehmarn Sound - the connection between the island of Fehmarn and the German mainland. This tunnel is crucial for the full integration of the Fehmarn Belt connection with the German railway network.

The tunnel under the Fehmarn Sound is planned to begin in 2026, but several assess that freight traffic will only be able to use the entire route around 2032 or 2033 - several years after the planned opening of the tunnel under the Fehmarn Belt.