The Fehmarn Sound Tunnel is a planned tunnel between the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

mainland and the Island of

Fehmarn Fehmarn (; ; from Old Wagrian Slavic languages, Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, afte ...

. It is projected to be built by 2028 to supplement and to relieve the

Fehmarn Sound Bridge The Fehmarn Sound Bridge () connects the Germany, German island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea with the German mainland near Großenbrode. Description The crossing includes the network arch bridge which carries road and rail over the Fehmarn ...

. It should cost €718 million. The tunnel will be near

Großenbrode Großenbrode is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the Baltic Sea coast, opposite Fehmarn, approx. 8 km (5 mi) east of Heiligenhafen. Until 1963 it had a ferry connection to G ...

Background

The treaty of 2008 between

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

provided that the hinterland connection to the Fehmarnbelt link was to be expanded on the German side, but the Fehmarnsund Bridge was to remain a two-lane road and a single-track railway. The bridge was considered to be able to handle the increase in traffic. It was later decided that the increase in traffic could not be handled by the existing

, especially rail traffic.Deutsche Bahn. ''Entscheidung zur neuen Fehmarnsundquerung.''
(in German) Retrieved 11 June 2021 In March 2020, the German Federal Ministry for Transport and Digital Infrastructure and

Deutsche Bahn (, ; abbreviated as DB or DB AG ) is the national railway company of Germany, and a state-owned enterprise under the control of the German government. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). DB was fou ...

announced that they had compared all investigated variants and opted for an immersed tunnel for road and rail (estimated cost: 714 million euros) and that the Fehmarnsund Bridge would be preserved.

Design

The design of the tunnel is very similar to the standard elements of the

Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link The Fehmarn Belt fixed link (, ) or Fehmarn Belt tunnel is an under-construction immersed tunnel, which will connect the Danish island of Lolland with the German island of Fehmarn, crossing the Fehmarn Belt in the Baltic Sea. It will provid ...

, which is currently being built. That is to be expected since both tunnels have been designed by groups with COWI involved. It has even been proposed to have the needed elements built at the factory that makes the elements for the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link since the Fehmarn Sound is around 900 m, and the elements for the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link is 217 m and so the Fehmarn Sound would consist of four or five such elements. Also, suggestions have been made to preserve the factory for future projects.

References

Buildings and structures in Ostholstein 2028 in rail transport Railway tunnels in Germany Immersed tube tunnels in Germany Transport in Schleswig-Holstein {{Europe-rail-transport-stub