Casting of Fehmarnbelt tunnel’s precast elements has began

Casting of the elements for the Fehmarnbelt tunnel has now begun, as was announced on July 10.

The Fehmarnbelt tunnel is going to be an 18 km long immersed tunnel, which will stretch between Rødbyhavn in Denmark and Puttgarden in Germany.

The project will be the world’s longest immersed tunnel, and Denmark’s largest infrastructure project, when completed in 2029, while cutting two hours of travel time compared to the existing route.

Furthermore, the tunnel will consist of 89 tunnel elements, out of which 79 are going to be 217 m long, 42 m wide and 9 m high, while weighing 73,000 tons each. Each one of these standard elements is going to be subdivided into nine segments, which are all going to be roughly 24-meters long. This brings the total segment number to 711 and the first one was cast a few days ago, marking a significant milestone for the project.

As for the remaining 10 of the tunnel’s elements, they are going to be placed about 2 km apart within the tunnel’s length and be 39 m long, 47 m wide and 13 m high, with the extra height being due to basements located underneath the rail and road surfaces.

Jens Ole Kaslund, technical director of the project’s client organization stated how "The construction of the factory, the work harbour and the tunnel portal have been a major preoccupation, but now we can unequivocally state that the casting of the elements for the Fehmarnbelt tunnel has begun – and that’s cause for celebration.”

The Fehmarnbelt tunnel is going to be placed on a dredged tunnel trench, more than 90% of which has already been completed. A special vessel is currently being constructed in Poland to lay gravel on top of the trench and then the first parts are going to be immersed in 2024.

Finally, it is worth noting how the factory that the elements are cast in Rødbyhavn is the world’s largest precast concrete element one.