Femern A/S, a subsidiary of the Danish state-owned Sund & Bælt Holding A/S, intends to award the contract for the construction of a tunnel connecting Denmark and Germany to a consortium including Van Oord and Royal Boskalis Westminster.
The Fehmarn Belt Contractors consortium also includes Hochtief AG and Ed Züblin AG. The total budget for the Fehmarnbelt link construction is DKR 45 billion (approximately EUR 6 billion) and the value of the contract to Van Oord and Boskalis is approximately EUR 300 million each.
Longest Immersed Road and Rail Tunnel
The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link will connect Denmark and Germany and will be the world's longest immersed road and rail tunnel. The fixed immersed tunnel link across the Fehmarnbelt will be more than 18 kilometres long and carry a four-lane motorway alongside a twin track-electrified railway.
Dredging and Reclamation
The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link tender consisted of four contracts: the tunnel north, the tunnel south, tunnel dredging and reclamation and the tunnel portals and ramps. The Fehmarn Belt Contractors consortium is the preferred bidder for the tunnel dredging & reclamation contract. The contract is conditional to obtaining the outstanding environmental permits that have yet to be issued by the German authorities. These permits are not expected to be issued before 2017.
The activity scope for Van Oord and Boskalis includes the dredging of a tunnel trench in the seabed over a distance of 16 kilometres with the use of various types of dredging equipment including trailing suction hopper dredgers, backhoes and grab dredgers. The dredged material will be reused to create a new recreational nature reserve area on the Danish side of the Fehmarnbelt.
The consortium will also construct a new working harbour where the tunnel contractors will construct a tunnel fabrication yard where the tunnel sections will be cast before being floated out to sea for installation.
Picture: Backhoe Goliath and split hopper barge Jan Blanken (by Van Oord).
