Bilans d’évènement
Visit of the construction site of the Femern Belt Tunnel
On Friday November 17th, the Danish-French Chamber of Commerce was able to offer the members of its Innovation and Production Committee a unique and very special experience: A visit of the construction site of the Femern Belt Tunnel by the southern Danish-German border.
Today, the only way of crossing the border is by ferry, but in some years an underwater tunnel between the two countries is going to cut down the trip significantly, allowing for cars to cross in only 7 minutes. The construction is managed by Femern Link Contractors (FLC), which is a joint venture between VINCI Construction Grands Projets, Aarsleff, and many other companies, which collaboratively have taken on the immense task of constructing the submerged tunnel between Denmark and Germany.
The Chamber’s visit of the tunnel began with a presentation of the project. The presentation offered the participants interesting insights into the engineering masterplan behind the project, the challenges met, and solutions found in the large-scale project. This shows a high level of innovation and collaboration between the partners.
Afterwards, we had the chance to visit the construction site, wearing the right clothes, safety shoes, and helmet to live up to health and safety requirements!
The tunnel is set to open in 2029, and while the large concrete elements are not yet at the point where they can be submerged and connected under the sea surface, the participants were invited into the enormous fabrication halls where the special modules are being welded and cast in concrete. The construction of elements is a complicated process in itself, but as the modules are finished another challenge presents itself – lowering them onto the ocean floor and securing them in this position. It is estimated that once the submersion of the concrete elements begins, FLC will be able to add a few elements to the tunnel per week, which at the end will be 18 kilometers long.
This visit was a very interesting and unique experience. It once again shows the impressive width of sectors and areas of interest covered by the Chamber’s member companies. We are happy to enable our members to discover all of their activities across sectors and develop new knowledge and contacts.
Thank you very much for the active participation of all the members who joined the trip and especially a big thank you to Frederic Sciblo and Sébastien Bliaut from Vinci Construction Grands Projets and FLC, for allowing us to visit the construction site.
