Around 20 interested parties turned up for an idea development meeting at Sund & Bælt on Tuesday afternoon. On the agenda was how the tunnel element factory in Rødby can be continued when the Fehmarn Tunnel is scheduled to be completed in 2029.
At the meeting, Sund & Bælt explained the process towards a new construction act, which legalizes the factory to remain. The current Construction Act for the construction site states that all structures must be taken down and the area rehabilitated when the construction is finished.
New environmental assessment
First, a new environmental assessment must be made based on the fact that the factory will remain after the tunnel construction. Then the assessment must be held in public consultation, and finally, the politicians can consider a proposal for a new construction act. Work on a new environmental assessment is already underway, and Sund & Bælt expects it to be sent out for consultation as early as spring 2023. The expectation is that the actual bill can be ready in October 2023.
Long-term concession agreement
The state – that is, Sund & Bælt – will not continue to run the element factory itself. So far, it remains unclear who will be next. But Sund & Bælt operates, among other things, with a model with a long-term concession agreement or a service contract with an operating operator. Such an agreement can extend over 25 years.
Who pays who for what
There are still a number of things that need to be clarified before the operating agreement can be put out to tender – according to the plan in 2024 or 2025. First, it must clarify who will pay whom for what. One possible model is for Sund & Bælt to establish a company responsible for the element factory. That company can then either sell the concession or the service provider contract to an operating operator who can then run the factory. Another model is for the government to pay an operating operator to run the factory.
The state must be prioritized
For both models, the operating operator must prioritize tasks for the state. Examples include (still) a possible Kattegat connection, a fixed connection between Fyn and Als, a new Limfjord connection, a harbour tunnel in Copenhagen and the planned energy islands in the Baltic and North Seas.
Many mega-constructions on the way
Next to the tasks for the state, a future operator can carry out other tasks for mega-constructions. For example, work is being done towards a Femernsund tunnel in Germany and a fixed connection between Tallinn in Estonia and Helsinki in Finland. And then all the planned mega-sized offshore wind turbines must also have concrete foundations. Pylons for bridges can also be manufactured and shipped from the factory in Lolland, so the potential is extensive, to say the least.
Location, location, location
Another important thing that needs to be clarified is what is needed before it becomes attractive to run the element factory. And just like real estate deals, it’s all about location.
The tunnel element factory is a completely unique combination of very large – the factory halls alone are 48,000 square meters under roof – factory facilities and a large, deep harbour in the immediate vicinity. There are no similar facilities anywhere else in the world.
Building factory on site
The “normal” procedure for large-scale concrete construction works is that – as with Fehmarnbyggeriet – the factory is built where the concrete elements are to be used. After construction, the factory plant is then removed again. But precisely, the combination of a large port and the factory means that the finished elements can be shipped to where they are to be used. And there is a lot of money to be saved here. It costs in the neighbourhood of 800 million euros to build the element factory on Lolland. Or put another way: The first kilometre of the tunnel is absolutely the most expensive.
Support in the Danish Parliament
There is already a political majority in the Danish parliament to preserve the tunnel element factory in Rødbyhavn, and it is included as part of the infrastructure plan 2035. And from Lolland Municipality, there is also unusually good support for the idea, which will be able to create around 500 permanent jobs:
From “Yes” to “Hallelujah!”
The mood for the project varies from “Yes” to “Hallelujah!”. There is 100 per cent political support. And there is almost no one living nearby, so you can basically make as much noise as you want, said Municipal Director Thomas Knudsen from Lolland Municipality, who attended the meeting at Sund & Bælt.
