The subcontractor party continues

Tunnel elements are cast at full speed in Rødbyhavn. The first five of nine segments for the first standard tunnel element are complete and the sixth is under way. And outside the large casting halls, the basement for the first of the ten special elements is ready. The Fehmarn project is no longer “just” a construction site – the element factory has gone into industrial production.

Deliveries will continue
FemernReport has visited the supplier network Femer Belt Suppliers (FBS) and asked if this means that the party is over for the local sub-suppliers:

– In relation to the factory and FLC, it is the existing tasks that they are producing concrete elements. But the deliveries of services will continue as long as they produce, says Lars Stuckert, chairman of FBS.

Big tasks ahead
But the Fehmarn Tunnel is much more than concrete elements, and there are still major tasks ahead:

– The transformer station, which is to be built over there, is also the first thing that is happening now, so there are also new tasks. And the last major tender from Femern A/S with 25 kilometers of railway and catenary also means some tasks that have not even started yet, says Lars Stuckert.

New consortium gives work
The third large tunnel consortium – Spanish FSC, which will be responsible for the technical installations in the tunnel – is also just establishing itself at the moment, and that also provides work, says Henriette F. Klement, contract manager at FBS:

– It’s everything from yellow Post-Its to what kind of insurance you need when setting up a business. So there are many things from the completely practical to the very large contracts. But I don’t think it is such a complete utopia to think that there will actually be an increased demand, she says.

Foreign companies also want other projects
What is FBS’s road map for the next year?

– After all, there will still be subcontractor tasks for FLC, which runs with theirs. There will be new assignments coming up where we will get requests. We do that today too. It is ongoing. It will be ongoing. The consortia or new companies that come down here, that is especially the Spanish ones, they want to establish themselves in Denmark. They would like to have other projects in Denmark. And we have also helped them with that, says Henriette F. Klement.

More connections across the belt
On the strategic level, however, there are changes in FBS. In the future, the network will try to create more contacts with German companies on the other side of the Fehmarn Belt and also try to assert itself in other infrastructure projects.

– Completely practical, we have a network on the other side that looks a bit like us (BalticFS, ed.), with whom we have a good cooperation. We are talking to Deutsche Bahn just to find out what might be relevant. After all, we are well aware that the scale of billions that they are working on is perhaps … Well, it is a rather large project. But there may be sub-elements that could be of interest to our members. Thursday next week we are going to a meeting on the other side about the Deutsche Bahn project, says Lars Stuckert.