Fehmarnbelt tunnel

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Fehmarnbelt tunnel GermanyGermany
Femern Bælt tunnel DenmarkDenmark
use Road and rail tunnels
traffic connection Bird airline
place Fehmarnbelt
length 18.1 km
Number of tubes 4th
cross-section 376 m²
construction
Client Femern A / S (femern.de)
building-costs 7.4 billion euros (cost estimate April 2015)
start of building 2015 (originally planned)
completion 2024 (was originally planned, construction time calculated at 8 years)
planner Femern A / S
business
operator Femern A / S
toll yes, height still unknown
Location of the planned Fehmarnbelt crossing
Fehmarnbelt Bridge.svg
location
Fehmarnbelt tunnel (Western Baltic Sea)
Portal Puttgarden
Portal Puttgarden
Portal Rødbyhavn
Portal Rødbyhavn
Coordinates
Portal Puttgarden 54 ° 29 ′ 51 ″  N , 11 ° 13 ′ 57 ″  E
Portal Rødbyhavn 54 ° 39 ′ 6 ″  N , 11 ° 22 ′ 4 ″  E

The Fehmarnbelttunnel ( Danish Femern Bælt-tunnelen ) is a planned 17.6 kilometer long road and rail tunnel under the Baltic Sea between the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland to cross the Fehmarnbelt as part of the so-called Vogelfluglinie , a direct train and Road connection between the greater Copenhagen and Hamburg areas. After the completion of the structure, unprecedented in this dimension as an immersed tunnel , the fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt could become the longest and deepest combined road and rail tunnel in the world. According to the planners, the current 45-minute travel time to cross the Fehmarnbelt by ferry would be reduced to a few minutes thanks to the underground passage, regardless of the weather.

The construction was approved by the Danish Parliament on April 28, 2015 . After the building permit was pending for a long time on the German side due to legal objections, building law has also existed on the German side since November 3, 2020 following the final decision of the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig.

Starting position

Since 1963, two weeks after the opening of the Fehmarnsund Bridge , the Baltic Sea has been crossed by ferries between Puttgarden and Rødbyhavn . The later decision to build a tunnel at the site was preceded by decades of planning and discussion about whether and in what way the Fehmarnbelt should be given a fixed link. On February 1, 2011, the Danish Parliament approved plans to create the Fehmarnbelt link through an immersed tunnel , as proposed by the planning and operating company Femern A / S. The start of construction was scheduled for 2015, by 2021 the work should be completed and the tunnel opened to traffic. However, delays continued.

The Kingdom of Denmark in particular pushed the planning forward through political decisions, especially by assuming the entire construction costs. The planning and subsequent operation should therefore be taken over by a Danish state company, Femern A / S , founded especially for the project .

Description of the structure

The Fehmarnbelt tunnel is to be built as an immersed tunnel . According to the recommendation of the planning company Femern A / S , various points were decisive for the decision to build a tunnel (instead of a bridge, which was also discussed) : On the one hand, a tunnel does not represent an obstacle to shipping on the Fehmarnbelt; on the other hand, it poses a technical risk during construction of a tunnel is seen as lower, even if it has to be built in greater water depth compared to other projects.

First of all, a trench about 12 meters deep and 80 to 140 meters wide is to be dredged into the sea bed (sea depth on site: up to 30 meters) over a set period of 18 months. Prefabricated concrete tunnel elements with a weight of 73,000 tons and a length of 217 meters are to be lowered into it and connected to one another. After that, the tunnel will be covered with a protective layer of large stones and a layer of sand to restore the seabed flush. The standard elements will be 42 m wide and 9 m high and contain four tubes for traffic and one escape tube. Another ten special elements should be three meters wider and four meters higher in order to provide additional space for parking bays and system technology.

Both road vehicles and trains should be able to travel separately for each direction through the four tunnel tubes. In particular, the separate directional lanes of the road are intended to increase safety in the tunnel. Each directional lane will also be equipped with two lanes and a full hard shoulder . The maximum speed for cars should be 110 km / h. The tubes for train traffic should allow speeds of up to 200 km / h. In addition, the tunnel is to be electrified with the Danish traction current system , i.e. with 25 kV voltage and a frequency of 50 Hz. The system separation point between the German and the Danish traction current system would therefore be located on German territory, not far from the Puttgarden tunnel portal.

To increase safety in the tunnel, in addition to the usual extinguishing, traffic control and monitoring systems, a mobile network will be available throughout . Changing lighting should prevent driver fatigue.

According to the plans, the tunnel portals are to be built on Fehmarn east of Puttgarden between the existing ferry port and the marine coastal station Marienuchter , and on Lolland east of the ferry port at Rødbyhavn.

Manufacturing and construction

The planning company has divided the tunnel project into four construction sections : "Tunnel North", "Tunnel South", "Portals and ramps" and "Deepening the seabed and reclamation". Construction sites with small construction site harbors will be set up on Fehmarn and Lolland, through which part of the material transport will be handled. In Rødbyhavn, a special factory for the series production of the tunnel elements will also be built.

Cost and Financing

Denmark would be the owner of the tunnel through the state operating company. The project is to be pre-financed by loans. Their repayment is to be made through toll revenues . The tunnel and the Danish hinterland connection are estimated to have paid for themselves after 39 years. This forecast was based on an estimate of the costs from 2011 of over 5.5 billion euros. At the beginning of 2015 it was announced that this forecast had risen to 9 billion euros. This could endanger the financing of the project. It was also announced at the end of June 2015 that the EU Commission had approved funding of only 589 million euros instead of the expected billion.

Construction phase and delayed completion

In order to reduce costs, the originally planned six-year construction period is to be extended by two years. Initially, 2021 was given as the year of completion of the work, then 2022 Template: future / in 2 yearsand 2015 the year 2024.

After the rescheduling with the construction period extended by two years, new offers were requested. The estimated costs fell from 7.4 to 7.0 billion euros, including one billion euros in reserves. In March 2016, the Danish Parliament decided that the project company could enter into building contract negotiations. Initially, conditional contracts were to be concluded, which should have been valid until 2019 and then could have been renegotiated.

Costs on the German side

In order to connect the tunnel to the hinterland, motorways, bridges and railway lines as far as Hamburg will have to be built or expanded when the project is implemented. According to figures from 2015, the German taxpayer or the EU has to raise at least 3 billion euros for this.

Fehmarnsund Bridge

In the course of the planning for the fixed Fehmarnbelt link, it was also examined whether the 963-meter-long, listed Fehmarn Sound Bridge from 1963 between the German mainland and the island of Fehmarn, around 15 kilometers away, needs to be replaced, either with a bridge or a tunnel. Test loads and static recalculations of the existing structure showed that the bridge would no longer be able to cope with future, higher loads. This also resulted from the fact that freight trains with a length of 835 meters and a gross vehicle weight of 2300 tons are planned between Scandinavia and Germany.

Procedure and Objections

The planning approval decision for 2018 and the start of construction in 2020 were expected in spring 2017. In 2014, more than 3000 objections were raised in the planning approval procedure , which arose at the State Office for Road Construction and Transport in Kiel. In the current planning approval procedure on the German side, 12,600 objections were dealt with in the second round of discussions in summer 2017.

The German shipping company TT-Line opposed the plans for a fixed link and justified this with the fact that the unlimited state guarantees, government bonds and tax advantages for the Fehmarn connection were a violation of EU competition rules. This lawsuit supported the ongoing lawsuit by the German-Danish shipping company Scandlines , which was filed with the General Court of the European Union in June 2014 . Scandlines then raised objections to the tax aid and state guarantees for the construction company. In these proceedings, the judgment was published on September 19, 2018, which found the plaintiffs in the right, but against which an appeal to the European Court of Justice was possible. There are clear indications for assessing the appropriately structured financing of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel.

The planning approval decision was issued at the end of January 2019. Two municipalities, three shipping companies, two associations and a private person had filed lawsuits with the Federal Administrative Court against the tunnel. The city of Bad Schwartau, the communities of Scharbeutz and Großenbrode have meanwhile reached an agreement with the state of Schleswig-Holstein and the tunnel operator Femern A / S before the Federal Administrative Court, according to which no freight trains will run on the route before the noise protection is in place. At the end of September 2020, the oral negotiations on the lawsuits of two shipping companies, an environmental association, an amalgamation of several citizens' initiatives and a private person against the planning approval decision for the tunnel on German territory took place. The plaintiffs requested a comprehensive judicial review of the planning approval decision. They were of the opinion that the Fehmarnbelt tunnel violated competition law , as unauthorized state subsidies were flowing into the project, and that its construction endangered the flora and fauna in the Baltic Sea. The plaintiffs also contested the need to build a fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt. On November 3, 2020, the Federal Administrative Court dismissed these complaints, with a subsequent decision on the reef biotopes in the vicinity of the tunnel route.

Tendering and awarding

In autumn 2012, the planning company started awarding the contract with a prequalification process , in which interested construction companies and consortia had to demonstrate that they were both technically and economically capable of handling one or more of the four construction lots . On May 27, 2013 it was announced that all nine applicants had successfully passed the procedure and had been admitted to the tender.

The international tender for the project took place on August 27, 2013 at a first meeting of representatives of the prequalified consortia and the client in Copenhagen .

17 offers were submitted for the project. It is divided into four main construction contracts:

  • Dredging the 18 km long and 12 m deep channel in the seabed
  • Manufacture and installation of the submerged tunnel
  • Construction of the northern and southern tunnel portals
  • Road and rail connections on both sides of the tunnel

According to information from the Hamburger Abendblatt, Hochtief from Germany , Royal Boskalis Westminster from the Netherlands and Impregilo from Italy applied for this. Furthermore, applications for the interior work and electrification of the Strabag tunnel system from Austria and the French company Alstom . All companies are therefore stakeholders in the Fehmarnbelt link and have an influence on future developments. For example, Alstom is organized in the Europabanan association.

The entire construction project is designed and monitored by the Danish civil engineering company Rambøll Group A / S in Copenhagen.

In July 2020, a restricted area was set up southeast of Rødbyhavn so that construction of the construction port can begin.

criticism

Opponents are of the opinion that the construction activity will cause ecological damage to the Baltic Sea. The higher noise emissions of the 78 freight trains a day with a length of more than 800 meters and at least 9,500 vehicles that have to pass through the island of Fehmarn for transit would also disrupt the tourist destinations of the island community, which currently account for around 80 percent of the local economic income.

Many initiatives and environmental protection organizations directed against the tunnel have come together as "Beltretter" to form a movement which, among other things, operates a joint Internet presence. Since 2015 they use on-site as a symbol against the Belttunnel and following the protests of the anti-nuclear movement in Wendland a blue instead of yellow St. Andrew's Cross .

Alternatives

The fixed Fehmarnbelt link ( green) and the alternative Rostock-Gedser link (red)

Due to the increasing flow of traffic and goods in the 21st century via a planned network of roads and railway lines via Moscow with the integration of Southeast Europe to Beijing, route-reducing and thus time-reducing alternatives for the connection to the Scandinavian economic area are the subject of considerations:

Archaeological finds

The finds made in 2014 on the route of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel include human footprints and a fish fence dating from around 3000 BC. BC originated. The footprints and the fish fence were discovered on the route of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel north of Norrevej in a dry fjord between Maribo and Rødbyhavn on Lolland in Denmark . The fjord was drained after the flood of the Baltic Sea in 1872 .

Among the finds include a geschäftete ax of flint and a wooden paddle . The ax and paddle had been found in damp, relatively anaerobic conditions, which helped preserve the organic matter.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The construction of the new Lübeck – Puttgarden railway line will not be completed before 2024 Template: future / in 4 years.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b c Figures, data, facts: The immersed tunnel. (PDF; 211 kB) (No longer available online.) Femern A / S, archived from the original on January 6, 2014 ; Retrieved May 30, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b Danish Parliament approves construction of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel. Deutschlandfunk, April 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c The fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt: project profile. (PDF; 154 kB) (No longer available online.) Femern A / S, archived from the original on July 22, 2014 ; Retrieved May 30, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Transport: That is why the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel project is years late. In: Hamburger Abendblatt of May 21, 2015, accessed on August 13, 2015.
  5. ↑ Timetables , scandlines.de
  6. ^ Fehmarnbelt crossing: Danish parliament decides to build the Baltic Sea tunnel. In Spiegel Online on April 28, 2015, accessed on April 28, 2015.
  7. ^ German Bundestag printed matter 18/4973 of May 20, 2015, accessed on August 13, 2015.
  8. ↑ Press release No. 62/2020 | Federal Administrative Court. Retrieved November 3, 2020 .
  9. ^ NDR: Fehmarnbelt tunnel may be built according to Leipzig judgment. Retrieved November 3, 2020 .
  10. ↑ More than a transport project. NDR.de from April 30, 2013, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  11. ↑ Soil investigations completed / Kühnes project: construction of the Fehmarnbelt bridge over nineteen kilometers long possible. In: Hamburger Abendblatt of August 27, 1963.
  12. ↑ German-Danish giant project: Tunnel on the Fehmarnbelt is getting more expensive. In: Spiegel Online . November 20, 2014, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  13. ^ Franziska Bossy: Danish-German giant project: Citizens want to stop the Fehmarnbelt tunnel. In: Spiegel Online . August 21, 2014, accessed June 9, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Fehmarnbelt tunnel: rising costs delay the start of construction. German-Swedish Chamber of Commerce, News of March 3, 2015, accessed on August 12, 2015.
  15. ↑ a b How high are the costs and who pays? (No longer available online.) Femern A / S, archived from the original on June 24, 2012 ; accessed on May 31, 2013 .
  16. ↑ The technical preferred solution for the EIA procedure - recommendation of Femern A / S. (No longer available online.) Femern A / S, archived from the original on May 4, 2013 ; accessed on May 31, 2013 .
  17. ↑ 18 months digging for tunnel trench. fehmarn24.de of December 10, 2013, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  18. ↑ a b standard elements. (No longer available online.) Femern A / S, archived from the original on August 20, 2013 ; Retrieved September 6, 2013 .
  19. ↑ special elements . (No longer available online.) Femern A / S, archived from the original on August 20, 2013 ; Retrieved September 6, 2013 .
  20. ↑ How the immersed tunnel is being built ( memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), femern.de, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  21. ↑ a b Which safety precautions are taken in the Fehmarnbelt tunnel? (No longer available online.) Ministry of Economics, Labor, Transport and Technology of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; Retrieved September 6, 2013 .
  22. ↑ Fehmarn Belt Tunnel breaks all records ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Page of the operating company
  23. ↑ State government of Schleswig Holstein: General plan plan approval documents. Retrieved February 21, 2019 .
  24. ^ Bing aerial photo, location of the planned tunnel portal between Puttgarden and Marienuchten on Fehmarn.
  25. ^ Bing aerial photo, location of the planned tunnel portal east of Rødbyhavn.
  26. ↑ A billion dollar grave in the Baltic Sea? The Fehmarnbelt tunnel between Germany and Denmark will cost much more than expected - and it is still unclear whether it will be needed. An expert opinion feeds doubts. zeit.de / Tagesspiegel, February 18, 2015.
  27. ↑ Kiel - Less EU funds for the Fehmarnbelt tunnel. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from July 1, 2015, accessed on August 13, 2015.
  28. ↑ Fehmarnbelt link endangered. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 4/2015, p. 188.
  29. ↑ Transport: The mega-project Fehmarnbelt tunnel will be postponed for years. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from May 20, 2015, accessed on August 13, 2015.
  30. ↑ Green light from Denmark for the Fehmarnbelt link . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . No. 6 , 2016, p. 292 .
  31. ^ "The greatest disfigurement of the environment in Northern Germany". jungewelt.de from July 28, 2015, accessed on August 11, 2015.
  32. ↑ The old Fehmarnsund Bridge is to remain. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from December 4, 2014, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  33. ^ Concern about the condition of the Fehmarnsund Bridge. NDR.de from August 26, 2014 ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on August 16, 2015.
  34. ↑ Fehmarnsund Bridge ailing - is there a threat of closure? ( Memento from August 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) NDR.de from August 26, 2014, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  35. ^ Stefan Neubert, Bernd Homfeldt: Recalculation of the Fehmarnsund Bridge. (PDF) DB Netz AG / DB ProjektBau, January 17, 2013, accessed on January 18, 2013 (2.1 MB).
  36. ↑ Scandinavian Transport Federation wants two new bridges for Fehmarnsund ( Memento from April 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: Hamburger Abendblatt from September 4, 2014, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  37. ^ Deutsche Bahn 1500 meter long freight trains. FAZ of January 2, 2013, page 3, accessed on August 19, 2015.
  38. ↑ WiMi.SH: Meyer's conclusion of today's visit to Copenhagen with his counterpart Olesen. In: SH Ministry of Economic Affairs currently. April 18, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017 .
  39. ↑ Belttunnel: Scandlines raises serious objections. In: ln-online.de. July 10, 2014, accessed August 12, 2015.
  40. ↑ WiMi.SH: Next stage on the way to Belttunnel: Starting today discussed the objections. In: SH Ministry of Economic Affairs currently. June 27, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2017 .
  41. ↑ Hamburger TT-Line against a fixed Fehmarn Belt crossing. In: The world. March 6, 2000, accessed August 12, 2015.
  42. ↑ Laurits Harmer Lassen: Tysk rederi klager over Femern-forbindelsen. In: Berlingske .de. November 29, 2014, accessed December 1, 2014 (Danish).
  43. ^ Judgment of the General Court (Sixth Chamber) of September 19, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018 .
  44. ↑ EU court stops funding for Fehmarnbelt crossing. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . Issue 2/2019, p. 90.
  45. ↑ https://www.abendblatt.de/region/schleswig-holstein/article216338845/Kieler-Ministerium-zuversicher-fuer-Fehmarnbelt-Tunnel.html
  46. ^ Ministry of Transport SH: Current information on the Fehmarnbelt planning status. Retrieved February 10, 2019 .
  47. ↑ DPA: deadline for action against Baltic Sea tunnel expired. In: The world . May 13, 2019, accessed September 28, 2020 .
  48. ^ Sebastian Prey, Maike Wegner, Markus Billhardt: Relief on the railway line . In: Lübecker Nachrichten . May 26, 2020, p. 11 .
  49. ^ Fehmarnbelt tunnel: Leipzig negotiates lawsuits. In: ndr.de. Norddeutscher Rundfunk, September 22, 2020, accessed on September 22, 2020 .
  50. ↑ Fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt: Federal Administrative Court dismisses complaints. In: Press release No. 62/2020. Federal Administrative Court, accessed on November 3, 2020 .
  51. ↑ Important milestones of the project. (No longer available online.) Femern A / S, archived from the original on May 4, 2013 ; accessed on May 31, 2013 .
  52. ↑ Tendering process started. In: Fehmarnsches Tagesblatt dated August 28, 2013, volume 158, No. 200, p. 1.
  53. ↑ International consortia submit offers for Fehmarnbelt tunnels . In: tunnel . International trade journal for underground construction. No. 4/2014 . Bauverlag, June 2014, ISSN  0722-6241 , p. 10-12 .
  54. ↑ Udsnit kort / Block chart 196, In: Søkortrettelser Heft 24/2020, message 388, Danish Maritime Authority, Korsør 2020 (cover sheet for the Danish nautical chart 196).
  55. ↑ Ostseebad train stations. Silent sunbathing. taz of July 30, 2014, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  56. ↑ ... calculated with an average daily traffic volume of approx. 9500 vehicles ... ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) factsheet traffic forecast Fehmarnbelt tunnel, fermern.de, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  57. ↑ Fehmarn - Blue Crosses against Belt Tunnel. ln-online.de from June 15, 2015, accessed on July 10, 2015.
  58. ↑ Fehmarn - Ostholstein's resistance to the Belt Tunnel is re-forming. ln-online.de of June 8, 2015, accessed on July 10, 2015.
  59. ↑ What we fight for. beltretter.de, accessed on July 10, 2015.
  60. ↑ Alexander Preker: Billions under the sea. spiegel.de , May 26, 2020, accessed on June 3, 2020.
  61. ^ Economy New Route. China is catapulting the Silk Road into the 21st century. In: Die Welt from April 17, 2015, accessed on August 16, 2015.
  62. ↑ a b Lolland Footprints and Fish Fence , Megalithic Portal