Imagine a hole in the ground that is 18 kilometers long, 45 meters wide, and over ten meters deep. It’s hard, isn’t it? But that is precisely such a hole that has just been completed between Lolland and Fehmarn.
30 Billion Pints of Beer
In total, 15 million cubic meters of seabed have been dug up from the Fehmarn Belt. And how much is 15 million cubic meters? The Royal Albert Hall in London holds about 90,000 cubic meters, so we are talking about roughly 167 of them. Or six of the great pyramid at Giza. If the material needed to be transported away by train, it would require 150,000 freight cars with a capacity of 100 cubic meters each. Of course, we could also just say that 15 million cubic meters equals 30 billion large pints of beer, or in round numbers nearly four large pints per person in the world. Excluding minors and beer abstainers, we are talking about quite a fine party.
Seven Vatican cities
The excavated material is being used to expand Lolland. It amounts to a total of 300 hectares. That corresponds roughly to seven Vatican Cities or slightly less than Central Park in New York (and that’s big). The Principality of Monaco covers 202 hectares, so an entire little kingdom has been dug up from the Baltic Sea.
Stones the weight of a herd of elephants
The largest stone that has been dug up from the tunnel trench weighs 70 tons. That’s equivalent to between 35 and 47 average cars or 11-12 adult African elephants.
World’s largest excavator
The contractor FBC has employed 70 vessels for the digging work – including the world’s largest offshore excavator, Magnor. A single scoop from Magnor can weigh up to 70 tons. The teeth on the bucket are one meter long. Along the way, several vessels had to visit the shipyard to be modified for the conditions in the Fehmarn Belt.
Old bombs
During the excavation work, a total of 17 parts of old bombs from World War II were found. One had to be detonated. In total, about 400 bombs landed in the Fehmarn Belt during World War II.
