GERMANY: Construction of the German side of the 18 km Fehmarn Belt immersed tube road and rail tunnel between Germany and Denmark was officially launched with a sod-turning ceremony on Puttgarden on November 29.
Attendees included Enak Ferlemann, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport & Digital Infrastructure, the Land of Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of Transport Bernd Buchholz and Denmark’s Minister of Transport Benny Engelbrecht.
‘The Fehmarn tunnel will be one of the largest and most significant transport infrastructure projects in Europe this decade’, said Ferlemann.
‘The connection between the København-Malmö and Hamburg regions, both of which are important in terms of economics and science, is being made considerably faster. Thus, travel time by train from Hamburg to København is reduced to only 2½ h, which is an important signal for the railway as a means of transport in the 21st century.’
A virtual ceremony had been held on January 1 to mark the start of construction at Rødbyhavn at the Danish end of the tunnel.
The tunnel is scheduled to open in 2029, offering a transit time of 7 min by train and 10 min in a car.
