One of the most sought-after men in the Danish construction industry had stopped by Bandholm Badehotel when the supplier network FB Suppliers held its general meeting on Thursday afternoon. Procurement manager Vagn Rahbek from Femern Link Contractors (FLC) gave a presentation on the status of Femernbyggeriet here and now.
Well on its way
– We are well on our way. We have started casting work on the tunnel portal in Rødbyhavn. West Quay at the working harbor is finished and put into use, and we expect to start casting the first tunnel segment at the element factory at the end of April. At the moment, we are building the first of a total of 711 reinforcement boxes, said the procurement manager during his presentation.
Logistics and supply chains
The majority of the largest contracts are in place, but there are still a number of “small things” pending, as Vagn Rahbek put it. First and foremost, it is about securing logistics and supply chains when work at the element factory gets underway in earnest – according to plan during the next month:
– The plan is for us to start one production line at a time from the end of April until the end of the year. We are in a transition period right now, where we are going from establishing an element factory to going into production, said Vagn Rahbek in his presentation.
As much Danish as possible
The FLC purchasing manager, who comes from the Danish branch of the FLC consortium, Aaarsleff, made no secret of the fact that he has gone to the task with a mission:
– My underlying agenda has been to have as many Danish suppliers as possible. And according to Femern A/S’s calculation, 64 percent of our sub-suppliers are Danish, he said.
However, it is not just an act of patriotism that has been decisive for FLC wanting its subcontractors as close as possible. It is also about risk minimization. The world has become a turbulent place after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and security of supply means everything when working on a mega-infrastructure project worth DKK 60 billion.
Gathers to pile
This can be seen, among other things, that space has also been set aside on the construction site for a decent pile of shards and gravel for aggregate for the three million cubic meters of concrete that the Fehmarn Tunnel will be cast from:
– There are shiploads of 12,500 tonnes of aggregate at a time. We have them in four piles, so we have for three weeks if the ships do not come for some reason for a period of time. Later, the big ships will come with 23,500 tons at a time, said Vagn Rahbek.
Use the database
The FLC procurement manager emphasized several times that there is still a need for more subcontractors. If you would like to be one of them, you must register in FLC’s supplier database and remember to fill in all fields as detailed as possible.
– You are very welcome to reach out and contact us, but we are very busy at the moment, said Vagn Rahbek.
