He has been locked in an open dispute with the top civil servant at Denmark’s transport ministry, seen his own leadership withdraw his criticism, sent alarming text messages to officials and been part of a sequence of events that also drew in the French ambassador.
Now Sébastien Bliaut has stepped down as chair of FLC Tunnel Group North I/S, part of the contractor consortium building the Fehmarnbelt fixed link between Denmark and Germany.
According to company filings, he left the position on April 7, 2026. Eric Chambraud was appointed chair on the same day.
Bliaut is from France’s Vinci Construction, the largest company in the Femern Link Contractors consortium. The group is responsible for building the immersed tunnel under the Fehmarnbelt, including casting, transporting and installing the 89 tunnel elements.
Senior Vinci executive takes over
Chambraud is not a routine replacement. He is a senior Vinci executive and, according to Vinci Construction Grands Projets, heads the group’s major projects division and serves as chair of Vinci Construction Grands Projets.
Bliaut, however, remains within the Vinci organisation. External leadership registers list him as operations director for Central Europe, Northern Europe and Benelux at Vinci Construction Grands Projets.
The change at the Danish FLC entity therefore does not point to a withdrawal by Vinci, but rather to a shift in who the French construction group has chosen to lead its role in Denmark at a particularly sensitive stage of the project.
The move comes after months of open conflict between Femern Link Contractors and the Danish state over delays, multi-billion-euro claims, the tunnel trench and the delayed immersion vessel Ivy.
Bliaut has been one of the most prominent figures in that dispute.
A dispute reaching into government
Tensions escalated on November 19, 2025, when he contacted the permanent secretary at Denmark’s transport ministry, Jacob Heinsen, directly via LinkedIn, at a time when problems with the immersion vessel were becoming increasingly significant.
The ministry’s response was unusually blunt. It said it was aware of significant issues with the vessel and delays of around 20 months, and raised concerns about whether the consortium could complete the project.
Bliaut replied days later with sharp criticism, arguing that the ministry had not been properly informed, describing the situation as an “administrative crisis” and pointing to what he called the authorities’ uncritical reliance on Sund & Bælt as the main risk to the project.
His letter was withdrawn the following day by the leadership of the companies behind the consortium, which described it as having been written by “one of our employees”.
The episode did not end there.
On February 4, 2026, Bliaut sent a text message to a senior official at the transport ministry, stating that the first immersion of a tunnel element was planned for April but that no agreement was yet in place to secure it.
“This is about more than my credibility or that of Sund & Bælt. The fate of the project is at stake,” he wrote, asking to speak.
Later the same evening, he sent a follow-up message saying that, on reflection, he might have given the wrong impression and that he was seeking to establish a confidential dialogue in the hope of benefiting the project.
The dispute also drew in France’s ambassador to Denmark, Christophe Parisot, who in late summer 2025 requested a meeting with transport minister Thomas Danielsen regarding the project and the challenges faced by Vinci Construction in its dealings with Sund & Bælt.
The meeting did not take place. The minister declined the request, stating he would only meet once Vinci had demonstrated it could carry out the immersion of the first tunnel elements.
Billions at stake in contractor claims
At the same time, Bliaut has been a central figure during a period in which the conflict around the project has intensified significantly.
Femern Link Contractors has filed a claim of €1.95bn against Femern A/S, relating to changed conditions, delays and work on the tunnel trench.
An international arbitration case is also under way over pandemic-related delays, with the contractor seeking €77m.
One of the key disputes concerns the trench on the seabed. FLC has repeatedly refused to approve it in its current form, citing significant deviations in the initial sections off the coast of Lolland, while the client has maintained that the issues can be addressed through adjustments.
It is in the midst of this conflict that Bliaut has now stepped down as chair.
Frederik Waage, a professor of administrative law at the University of Southern Denmark, has previously described the course of events as unusual, pointing in particular to the involvement of a foreign ambassador and the direct confrontation between the ministry’s top official and the main contractor.
“It is an unusual situation, and one has to ask whether the project is under control when the parties are at this level of conflict. That is something the minister should explain,” he said.
