The next tunnel element for the Fehmarn Belt link is being prepared for immersion. FemernBusiness understands that the plan is to lower the element into place within the next week.
That will move the Fehmarn project into the phase that will determine how quickly the fixed link to Germany can realistically be completed. The first tunnel element has already been immersed off Rødbyhavn. The crucial test now is whether the client and the main contractor can repeat the operation at a pace that can form the basis for a new overall timetable.
The Fehmarn Belt tunnel consists of 89 tunnel elements, which will be lowered one by one into the 18-kilometre tunnel trench on the seabed between Lolland and the German island of Fehmarn. Each element must be towed out from the production site at Rødbyhavn, positioned in the trench and connected under water to the previous element. The immersion process is therefore the part of the construction work on which the entire future timetable depends.
The first 650 metres are ready
The first three elements are to be placed in the first 650 metres of the tunnel trench off Rødbyhavn. This is the section of the trench that Sund & Bælt and the main contractor, Femern Link Contractors, have had a separate agreement to prepare after the trench had long been one of the project’s biggest points of dispute.
If the next element is immersed next week, the project will still be working within the first section of the trench. At the same time, it will move one step closer to showing whether the immersion work can settle into the rhythm needed for the rest of the project.
That question is central because Sund & Bælt has said it will only present an updated timetable once there is more concrete experience with the immersion of tunnel elements. The forthcoming timetable is expected to be based on experience with both standard tunnel elements and special elements. Once the project reaches the first special element, the client will have a stronger basis for assessing how quickly the rest of the tunnel can be completed.
New timetable on the way
The new timetable will be crucial for the entire project. The 2029 opening target has been abandoned, and the first cars are now expected to be able to drive through the tunnel no earlier than 2032. The next immersions are therefore about more than placing another concrete element on the seabed. They will help show what pace the Fehmarn project can realistically maintain in the coming years.
The target is for one element to be immersed within 12 days. That target, however, only applies during periods when the work can actually be carried out. Weather, sea conditions, work in the tunnel trench and restrictions on the German side may still affect the pace.
The original overall timetable was based on all 89 elements being immersed over a three-year period. That will be followed by installations, testing and preparations before the link can open to traffic. The strict German environmental requirements make it difficult to maintain that pace throughout.
