The director of the tunnel consortium behind the Fehmarn connection attempted at the beginning of February to establish a direct and confidential dialogue with the top official of the Ministry of Transport. In a text message, he states that the ministry is not correctly informed about the project's situation and that the project's fate is at stake.
This is evident from an access to documents in the correspondence between Fehmarn Link Contractors (FLC) and the Ministry of Transport, which Ingeniøren has obtained and shared with FemernBusiness.
On 4 February 2026, FLC director Sébastien Bliaut contacts department head Flemming Schiller in the Ministry of Transport. Here he informs that the first immersion of a tunnel element is planned for April, but that there is still no agreement in place to ensure it. He also writes that there are significant matters that the ministry is not correctly informed about and refers to the minister's latest response to the Danish Parliament.
“It is about more than my credibility or Sund & Bælt's. It is the fate of the project that is at stake,” he writes and asks if they can talk together.
Later that evening, he returns with a new text message. Here he writes that upon rereading, he can see that he may have given the wrong impression. He emphasises that he merely wishes to establish a confidential dialogue in the hope that it benefits the project.
Major conflict
The text messages occur in the midst of an escalating conflict over the largest construction project in Danish history, the 18-kilometre-long immersed tunnel between Rødby and Puttgarden at a preliminary cost of 67 billion DKK. Nevertheless, the client Sund & Bælt and the main contractor are now so far apart that they no longer share a common description of what is actually halting the construction. The ministry points to the immersion vessel as the main risk and talks about a delay of around 20 months. FLC rejects this and points to the tunnel trench as the central bottleneck.
Withdrew criticism
The new text messages come after an already sharp exchange of letters between FLC director Sébastien Bliaut and the Ministry of Transport's permanent secretary Jacob Heinsen in December 2025. Here, Heinsen wrote that the ministry was informed of significant problems with the immersion vessel and a delay of around 20 months, and he expressed concern about whether the consortium was capable of completing the project. Bliaut rejected the assessment and instead pointed to the tunnel trench as the central bottleneck and called the ministry's blind trust in Sund & Bælt the real problem. And called it an administrative crisis.
The following day, the letter was withdrawn by the top management of the companies behind Femern Link Contractors.
Ingeniøren has reached out to the top executives in the ownership circle. But neither Stefan Bögl from Max Bögl, Luc Vandenbulcke from DEME, Jesper Kristian Jacobsen from Per Aarsleff A/S, nor Patrick Kadri, group director at Vinci Construction, have returned with a comment on Sébastien Bliaut's latest approach to the Ministry of Transport.
Nor has Sébastien Bliaut responded to the inquiries.
No comments
Sund & Bælt maintains that the announced schedule holds. The company states that the contractor expects the first tunnel element to be submerged in the spring of 2026 based on the contractor's own schedule, and that there is a focus on ensuring progress in the project. At the same time, Sund & Bælt emphasises that dialogue about contractual matters takes place directly with the CEOs of the companies that make up FLC, and that they do not comment on the contractual negotiations in the press.
The Ministry of Transport informs FemernBusiness that they have no further comments.
