The Great Belt Bridge ( da, Storebæltsbroen) or Great Belt fixed link ( da, Storebæltsforbindelsen) is a multi-element

fixed link A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

crossing the Great Belt strait between the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

islands of Zealand and Funen. It consists of a road

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

and a railway tunnel between Zealand and the small island Sprogø in the middle of the Great Belt, and a

box-girder bridge A box girder bridge, or box section bridge, is a bridge in which the main beams comprise girders in the shape of a hollow box. The box girder normally comprises prestressed concrete, structural steel, or a composite of steel and rei ...

for both road and rail traffic between Sprogø and Funen. The total length is . The term ''Great Belt Bridge'' commonly refers to the suspension bridge, although it may also be used to mean the box-girder bridge or the link in its entirety. Officially named the East Bridge, the suspension bridge was designed by the Danish firms COWI and

Ramboll Rambøll Group A/S (also known as just "Ramboll") is a Danish consulting engineering group. History Rambøll was founded in October 1945 as "Rambøll & Hannemann" in Copenhagen. In 1991 the company merged with "B. Højlund Rasmussen A/S" into ...

, and the architecture firm Dissing+Weitling. It has the world's sixth- longest main span (). At the time of the opening of the bridge it was the second longest, beaten by the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opened a few months previously. The link replaced the

Great Belt ferries The Great Belt ferries ( da, Storebæltsfærgerne) were the train and car ferries operating across the Danish strait of Great Belt, between the islands of Zealand and Funen. The railway ferry link was established in 1883, while automobile-only ferr ...

service, which had been the primary means of crossing the Great Belt. After more than 50 years of debate, the Danish government decided in 1986 to construct a link; it opened to rail traffic in 1997 and to road traffic in 1998. At an estimated cost of DKK 21.4 billion (

EUR The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . Th ...

2.8 billion) (1988 prices), the link is the largest construction project in Danish history. It has reduced travel times significantly; previously taking one hour by ferry, the Great Belt can now be crossed in ten minutes. This link, together with the Øresund Bridge (built 1995–1999) and the Little Belt Bridge, have together enabled driving from mainland Europe to Sweden through Denmark. Operation and maintenance are performed by ''A/S Storebælt'' under ''Sund & Bælt''. Construction and maintenance are financed by tolls on vehicles and trains. Cyclists are not permitted to use the bridge, but bicycles may be transported by train or bus.

History

The

entered service between the coastal towns of

Korsør Korsør is a town on Zealand, Denmark. It is located in Slagelse Municipality. Until 2007 Korsør was the seat of Korsør Municipality. The town is located west of Slagelse, north-west of Skælskør and connects to Nyborg through the Great Bel ...

and Nyborg in 1883, connecting the railway lines on either side of the Belt. In 1957, road traffic was moved to the Halsskov–Knudshoved route, about 1.5 kilometres to the north and close to the fixed link. Construction drafts for a fixed link were presented as early as the 1850s, with several suggestions appearing in the following decades. The

Danish State Railways DSB, an abbreviation of ''Danske Statsbaner'' (, ''Danish State Railways''), is the largest Danish train operating company, and the largest in Scandinavia. While DSB is responsible for passenger train operation on most of the Danish railways, goo ...

, responsible for the ferry service, presented plans for a bridge in 1934. The concepts of bridges over Øresund (152 million DKK) and Storebælt (257 million DKK) were calculated around 1936. In 1948, the Ministry for Public Works (now the Ministry of Transport) established a commission to investigate the implications of a fixed link. The first law concerning a fixed link was enacted in 1973, but the project was put on hold in 1978 as the Venstre (Liberal) party demanded postponing public spending. Political agreement to restart work was reached in 1986, with a construction law ( da, anlægslov) being passed in 1987. The design was carried out by the engineering firms COWI and

together with Dissing+Weitling architecture practice. Construction of the link commenced in 1988. In 1991, Finland sued Denmark at the International Court of Justice, on the grounds that Finnish-built mobile offshore drilling units would be unable to pass beneath the bridge. The two countries negotiated a financial compensation of 90 million Danish kroner, and Finland withdrew the lawsuit in 1992. The link is estimated to have created a value of 379 billion DKK after 50 years of use. In 2022, the bridge was crossed as part of the route of

Stage 2 ''Stage 2'' was a UK television anthology series produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Thirteen episodes aired on BBC2 under ''Stage 2'' billing from 1971–73. They were all productions of classic plays shown previously o ...

of the

2022 Tour de France The 2022 Tour de France was the 109th edition of the Tour de France. It started in Copenhagen, Denmark on 1 July 2022 and ended with the final stage on the Champs-Élysées, Paris on 24 July 2022. Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard () won the general clas ...

Construction

The construction of the fixed link became the biggest building project in the history of Denmark. In order to connect Halsskov on Zealand with Knudshoved on Funen, to its west, a two-track railway and a four-lane motorway had to be built, via the small island of Sprogø in the middle of the Great Belt. The project comprised three different tasks: the East Bridge for road transport, the East Tunnel for rail transport and the West Bridge for road and rail transport combined. The construction work was carried out by Sundlink Contractors, a consortium of Skanska,

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.Højgaard & Schultz (which built the West Bridge) and Monberg & Thorsen (which built the section under the Great Belt). The work of lifting and placing the elements was carried out by

Ballast Nedam Ballast Nedam is a Dutch-based construction and engineering company headquartered in Nieuwegein. The company resulted from a merger between Amsterdamse Ballast Maatschappij and Nederlandse Aannemingsmaatschappij. History As the name might sug ...

using a floating crane.

East Bridge

Built between 1991 and 1998 at a cost of US$950 million, the East Bridge (''Østbroen'') is a

between Halsskov and Sprogø. It is long with a free span of ,. The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge was opened two months earlier. The East Bridge had been planned to be completed in time to be the longest bridge, but it was delayed. The vertical clearance for ships is , meaning the world's largest cruise ship, an ''Oasis''-class cruise ship, just fits under with its smokestack folded. At above sea level, the two pylons of the East Bridge are the highest points on self-supporting structures in Denmark. Some radio masts, such as Tommerup transmitter, are taller. To keep the main cables tensioned, an anchorage structure on each side of the span is placed below the road deck. After 15 years, the cables have no rust. They were scheduled for a 15 million DKK paint job, but due to corroding cables on other bridges, the decision was made to instead install a 70 million DKK sealed de-humidifying system in the cables. This was carried out by UK engineering firm

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, with help from Danish subcontractors Davai who provided the manpower, and Belvent A/S who provided the dehumidification system. Nineteen concrete pillars (12 on the Zealand side, seven by Sprogø), apart, carry the road deck outside the span.

West Bridge

The West Bridge (''Vestbroen'') is a box girder bridge between Sprogø and Knudshoved. It is long, and has a vertical clearance for ships of . It is actually two separate, adjacent bridges: the northern one carries rail traffic and the southern one road traffic. The pillars of the two bridges rest on common foundations below sea level. The West Bridge was built between 1988 and 1994; its road/rail deck comprises 63 sections, supported by 62 pillars.

East Tunnel

The twin bored tunnel tubes of the East Tunnel (''Østtunnelen'') are each long. There are 31 connecting tunnels between the two main tunnels, at intervals. The equipment that is necessary for train operation in the tunnels is installed in the connecting tunnels, which also serve as emergency escape routes. There were delays and cost overruns in the tunnel construction. The plan was to open it in 1993, giving the trains a head start of three years over road traffic, but train traffic started in 1997 and road traffic in 1998. During construction the sea bed gave way and one of the tunnels was flooded. The water continued to rise and reached the end at Sprogø, where it continued into the (still dry) other tunnel. The water damaged two of the four tunnel boring machines, but no workers were injured. Only by placing a clay blanket on the sea bed was it possible to dry out the tunnels. The two damaged machines were repaired and the majority of the tunnelling was undertaken from the Sprogø side. The machines on the Zealand side tunnelled through difficult ground and made little progress. A major fire on one of the Zealand machines in June 1994 stopped these drives and the tunnels were completed by the two Sprogø machines. A total of 320

compressed air Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes, and is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches, and o ...

workers were involved in 9,018 pressure exposures in the four tunnel-boring machines. The project had a decompression sickness incidence of 0.14% with two workers having long-term residual symptoms.

Traffic implications

Prior to the opening of the link, an average of 8,000 cars used the ferries across the Great Belt every day. The traffic across the strait increased 127 percent over the first year after the link's opening due to the so-called traffic leap: new traffic generated by the improved ease, facility and lower price of crossing the Great Belt. In 2021, an average of 34,100 vehicles used the link each day. On August 7, 2022 a record 61,528 vehicles passed the bridge in 24 hours. The increase in traffic is partly caused by the general growth of traffic, partly diversion of traffic volume from other services via ferry and services. The fixed link has produced considerable savings in travel time between eastern and western Denmark. Previously, it took approximately 90 minutes on average to cross the Great Belt in a car with transfer by ferry, including the waiting time at the ports. It took considerably longer during peak periods, such as weekends and holidays. With the opening of the link, the journey is now between 10 and 15 minutes. By train the time savings are significant as well. The journey has been reduced by 60 minutes, and there are many more seats available because more carriages may be added to a train that does not have to fit on a ferry. The seating capacity offered by

DSB DSB may refer to: Science, technology and devices * DsbA, a bacterial member of the Dsb (disulfide bond) family of enzymes * Double strand break, a break in both DNA strands, part of DNA repair * in telecommunications, double-sideband transmission ...

across the Great Belt on an ordinary Wednesday has risen from 11,060 seats to 37,490 seats. On Fridays the seating capacity exceeds 40,000 seats. The shortest travel times are: Copenhagen– Odense 1 hour 15 minutes, Copenhagen–

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...

2 hours 30 minutes, Copenhagen–

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of Aalb ...

3 hours 55 minutes and Copenhagen– Esbjerg 2 hours 35 minutes. Flights between Copenhagen and Odense, and between Copenhagen and Esbjerg have ceased, and the train now has the largest market share between Copenhagen and Aarhus. Together with the Øresund Bridge, and the two Little Belt bridges, the link provides a direct fixed connection between western Continental Europe and northern Scandinavia, eventually connecting all parts of the European Union except Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, and outlying islands. Most people from Zealand still prefer to take the ferry between

Puttgarden is a ferry harbour and a village on the German island of Fehmarn. It lies on an important route between Germany and Denmark known as the Vogelfluglinie which crosses the strait, the Fehmarnbelt, to Rødby on the island of Lolland. Overview ...

and Rødby, as it is a much shorter distance and provides a needed break for those travelling a long distance. For freight trains, the fixed links are a large improvement between Sweden and Germany, and between Sweden and the UK. The Sweden-to-Germany ferry system is still used to some extent owing to limited rail capacity, with heavy passenger traffic over the bridges and some single track stretches in southern Denmark and northern Germany. The Great Belt was used by now defunct night passenger trains between Copenhagen and Germany, which were too long to fit on the ferries. Day trains on the Copenhagen-Hamburg route first continued to use the Fehmarn Belt ferries, utilising short diesel trains, but now also use the Great Belt route, which potentially allows longer trains to be used, increasing capacity. By 2028, the

Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link The Fehmarn Belt fixed link ( da, Femern Bælt-forbindelsen, german: Fehmarnbelt-Querung) or Fehmarn Belt tunnel is an under-construction immersed tunnel, which will connect the Danish island of Lolland with the German island of Fehmarn, cros ...

is expected to be complete with much of the international traffic being shifted from the Great Belt Fixed Link. This more direct route will reduce the rail journey from Hamburg to Copenhagen from 4:45 to 3:30 hours.

Toll charge

In 2019, the vehicle tolls were:

Environmental effects

Environmental considerations have been an integral part of the project, and have been of decisive significance for the choice of alignment and determination of the design. Environmental considerations were the reason why Great Belt A/S established an environmental monitoring programme in 1988, and initiated co-operation with authorities and external consultants on the definition of environmental concerns during the construction work and the professional requirements to the monitoring programme. This co-operation issued in a report published at the beginning of 1997 on the state of the environment in the Great Belt. The conclusion of the report was that the marine environment was at least as good as before construction work began. With regards to the water flow, the link must comply with the so-called zero-solution. This has been achieved by deepening parts of the Great Belt, so that the water flow cross section has been increased. This excavation compensates for the blocking effect caused by the bridge pylons and approach ramps. The conclusion of the report is that water flows are now almost at the level they were before the bridge was built. The fixed link has generated increased road traffic volume, which has meant increased air pollution. However, there has been significant savings in the energy consumption by switching from ferries to the fixed link. Train and car ferries consume much energy for propulsion, high-speed ferries consume large amounts of energy at high speeds, and air transport is highly energy consuming. Domestic air travel over the Great Belt was greatly reduced after the opening of the bridge, with the former air travellers now using trains and private cars. The larger energy consumption by ferries as opposed to via the fixed link is most clearly seen when comparing short driving distances from areas immediately east or west of the link. For more extended driving distances the difference in energy consumption is smaller, but any transport within Denmark across the link shows very clear energy savings. During 2009, seven large wind turbines, likely Vestas 3MWs totalling 21MW capacity, were erected in the sea north of Sprogø to contribute to the electrical demand of the Great Belt Link. Their hub heights are about the same level as the road deck of the suspension bridge. Part of the project was to showcase sea wind at the December 2009 Copenhagen climate meeting.

Accidents

During construction 479 work-related accidents were reported, of which 53 resulted in serious injuries or death. Seven workers died as a result of work-related accidents. The West Bridge has been struck by sea traffic twice. While the link was still under construction on 14 September 1993, the ferry M/F Romsø drifted off course in bad weather and hit the West Bridge. At 19:17 on 3 March 2005, the 3,500-ton freighter

MV Karen Danielsen The M/V ''Karen Danielsen'', is a multipurpose container feeder, built in March 1985 by J.J. Sietas KG, at their shipbuilding yard in Hamburg-Neuenfelde, Germany, and labelled a type 111a. This ship is registered as the 970 new-build ship by J.J ...

crashed into the West Bridge 800 metres from Funen. All traffic across the bridge was halted, effectively cutting Denmark in two. The bridge was re-opened shortly after midnight, after the freighter was pulled free and inspectors had found no structural damage to the bridge. The East Bridge has so far been in the clear, although on 16 May 2001, the bridge was closed for 10 minutes as the Cambodian 27,000-ton bulk carrier ''Bella'' was heading straight for one of the anchorage structures. The ship was deflected by a swift response from the navy. On 5 June 2006, a maintenance vehicle burst into flames in the east-bound railway tunnel at about 21:30. Nobody was hurt; its crew of three fled to the other tunnel and escaped. The fire was put out shortly before midnight, and the vehicle was removed from the tunnel the next day. Train service resumed on 6 June at reduced speed, and normal service was restored on 12 June. On 2 January 2019, eight people were killed in a train accident on the West Bridge. A passenger train was hit by a semi-trailer that fell off a freight train travelling in the opposite direction.

Operations

In 2009, a study characterized the rail tunnel (together with other major projects like the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...

between England and France) as financially non-viable.

Gallery

File:Storebæltsbroen 2.jpg, The East Bridge from below File:Denmark Great Belt Bridge East.jpg, View from below the East Bridge south-east toward Korsør File:GreatBeltBridgeInBirdsView.jpg, The East Bridge from the top of the eastern pylon File:GreatBeltBridge.JPG, The East Bridge on a clear day File:Storeb%C3%A6ltsbroen_close.jpg, A closeup of the two pylons File:Allure of the Seas under the Storebaelts bridge.jpg, ''

Allure of the Seas ''Allure of the Seas'' is an owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International. , the ''Oasis'' class ships were the largest passenger vessels ever in service, and ''Allure'' is longer than her sister ship '' Oasis of the Seas'', though both ...

'' passing under the East Bridge File:StoreBaelt sunset 01.jpg, The East Bridge at sunset File:StoreBaelt night 01.jpg, The East Bridge at night File:The Great Belt Bridge, Eastern Bridge, August 2020 -01.jpg, The East Bridge at sunset as seen aboard a cruise ship File:The Great Belt Bridge, Eastern Bridge, August 2020 -02.jpg, Passing the East Bridge aboard a cruise ship File:Storebæltsbroen, Nyborg, Denmark (17358922531).jpg, West bridge

Notes

External links

Great Belt BridgeGreat Belt bridge on bridge-info.org
*Great Belt Fixed Link is at coordinates * * * {{Coord, 55, 20, N, 10, 58, E, scale:100000_region:DK_type:landmark, display=title Suspension bridges in Denmark Tunnels in Denmark Box girder bridges Road bridges in Denmark Railway tunnels in Denmark Railway bridges in Denmark Bridge–tunnels in Europe Road-rail bridges Toll bridges in Denmark Bridges completed in 1997 Tunnels completed in 1997 Bridges completed in 1998 Connections across the Baltic Sea Modernist architecture in Denmark Danish Culture Canon 1997 establishments in Denmark 1998 establishments in Denmark