Great Belt Bridge
The Great Belt Bridge or Great Belt fixed link is a multi-element fixed link crossing the Great Belt strait between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen. It consists of a road suspension bridge and a railway tunnel between Zealand and the small island Sprogø in the middle of the Great Belt, and a box-girder bridge 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, especially when discussing the railway, or the link in its entirety. Together with the New Little Belt Bridge, the Great Belt link provides a continuous road and rail connection between Copenhagen and the Danish mainland. It has the world's seventh-longest main span. Operation and maintenance of the bridge are performed by A/S Storebælt under Sund & Bælt. Maintenance and the original construction are financed by tolls on vehicles and trains making use of the bridge.
Officially named the East Bridge, the suspension bridge was designed by the Danish firms COWI and Ramboll, and the architecture firm Dissing+Weitling. The construction and assembly of the suspended deck were carried out by the company with the consultancy of the Italian under the direction of Mario de Miranda. The link replaced the Great Belt ferries 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; the bridge opened to rail traffic in 1997 and to road traffic in 1998, at the time the world's second longest, beaten by the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opened a few months previously. At an estimated cost of DKK 21.4 billion , 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 and the Little Belt Bridge, have together enabled driving from mainland Europe to Sweden through Denmark.
History
The Great Belt ferries entered service between the coastal towns of Korsør 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, responsible for the ferry service, presented plans for a bridge in 1934. The concepts of bridges over Øresund and Storebælt were calculated around 1936. In 1948, the Ministry for Public Works 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 party demanded postponing public spending. Political agreement to restart work was reached in 1986, with a construction law being passed in 1987.
The design was carried out by the engineering firms COWI and Ramboll 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.
A European Court of Justice ruling in 1993 found that a contractual condition requiring use of local labour and local materials in constructing the bridge was incompatible with the principles of the EEC Treaty.
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 of the 2022 Tour de France.
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, Højgaard & Schultz and Monberg & Thorsen. The work of lifting and placing the elements was carried out by Ballast Nedam using a floating crane.East Bridge
Built between 1991 and 1998 at a cost of US$950 million, the East Bridge is a suspension bridge between Halsskov and Sprogø. It is long with a free span of,. The East Bridge had been planned to be completed in time to be the longest bridge in the world, but there were delays in construction. Therefore, it happened that the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge was opened two months earlier.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 Spencer Group, with help from Danish subcontractors Davai who provided the manpower, and Belvent A/S who provided the dehumidification system.
Nineteen concrete pillars, apart, carry the road deck outside the span.
West Bridge
The West Bridge 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 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 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 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 7 August 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 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 2 hours 30 minutes, Copenhagen-Aalborg 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 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 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.
Cyclists are not permitted to use the bridge, but bicycles may be transported by train or bus.