Inside the casting halls at the element factory, work is done at high pace. The first standard element just needs one of 20 segments to be complete. Photo: Bernt Hertz Jensen.
Bernt Hertz JensenBerntHertz Jensen
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On Friday, the tunnel consortium FLC marked a significant milestone: The first 100 meters of the Femern Belt tunnel are now underwater. This concerns the first segment of the tunnel portal in Rødbyhavn – essentially the “entrance” to the tunnel. The 100-meter-long tunnel segment was completed on land a month ago. The work on the portal has been carried out behind a temporary dike, allowing operations below the waterline.
100 meters underwater FLC has now completed the new, permanent dike over the tunnel portal and has filled the basin that has been formed between the new dike and the temporary one. Consequently, the first 100 meters of the tunnel now lie under 12 meters of water. The next step is to remove the temporary dike so that the first standard element can be connected to the portal. To keep the Baltic Sea out of the first meters of the tunnel, the segment has been equipped with a large “plug” made of double steel doors in each of the five tunnel tubes.
FLC has allowed water into the basin that has emerged between the new, permanent dike and the temporary one. So now the first 100 meters of the tunnel are under 12 meters of water. Photo: Femern A/S.
FLC reports on its website that the work on the portal has been completed ahead of schedule.
First standard element close to ready The next step will be to prepare the first 217-meter-long and 42-meter-wide standard tunnel element for shipping, submersion, and installation. This is expected to take place shortly after the summer vacation.
The first element is very close to being fully cast. Just a single 24-meter segment is missing, and then the first 73,500 tons of Femern tunnel will be ready to be sailed out through the tunnel factory’s gigantic floating gate and lowered to its final position in the tunnel trench on the seabed.
Nine months in progress Work on the first standard element has been underway since July 2023 and has thus taken nine months. As routines are established, however, the process is expected to significantly accelerate. It is FLC’s expectation that a tunnel element can be cast in about nine weeks, once the element factory is fully operational.
FemernReport has visited the factory and casting hall C in Rødbyhavn, where you can see how the work on casting the massive tunnel elements is progressing (Click on the picture to see it in full size).
Here, a cross-section of the tunnel can be clearly perceived, with the two motorway tubes on the far right and the railway tubes on the left. The middle pipe is for technical and emergency pipes. The three blue folded arms at the top left are the concrete cannons that will pump liquid concrete over the mold and rebar. Photo: Bernt Hertz Jensen.
The work of casting the tunnel elements takes place indoors in three huge casting halls. Here we are visiting hall C. Photo: Bernt Hertz Jensen
You can’t see it, but here work is being done at a height of nine meters on top of what will become a standard tunnel element. Photo: Bernt Hertz Jensen
The tunnel factory is high-tech and fully automated. And the Fehmarn tunnel will be a technological milestone in many ways. Still, there is no way around an old-fashioned ruler when it all needs to be in place. Photo: Bernt Hertz Jensen
Outside the giant casting halls, where the standard elements are manufactured, work is being done on the first of the ten special elements, which will be provided with a basement floor for engineering and emergency and maintenance areas. Foto: Bernt Hertz Jensen
When the first standard element is finished it will be towed out through the giant blue floating gate to the right of the crane. Photo: Bernt Hertz Jensen.
