Relatively unknown outside Europe, the Fehmarnbelt tunnel is quietly becoming one of the most ambitious civil engineering projects on the planet.
Slated to open in 2029, this 18-kilometer (11.2-mile) submerged connection between Germany and Denmark will cut travel time across the Baltic Sea from nearly 60 minutes—including a ferry ride—to just seven minutes by train or 10 minutes by car.
But the real story isn’t about speed. It’s about how engineers in one of Europe’s flattest regions decided not to drill or bridge, but to sink nearly 80 massive tunnel elements—each weighing roughly as much as 365 blue whales—directly into the seafloor.
This wasn’t the obvious choice, but it was the one that best balanced risk, cost and environmental impact, according to more than a decade of cross-border feasibility studies and analysis.
Drilling Was a Gamble. So They Didn’t.
In 2011, after extensive study, planners narrowed their options to three: a bored tunnel, a suspension bridge or an immersed design.
“A bored tunnel would have proved to be a very expensive and risky solution since the seabed is not suitable for drilling,” said Denise Juchem, a spokesperson for Femern A/S, the Danish state-owned firm overseeing the project.
A bridge might have saved money upfront, but wind conditions across the Fehmarnbelt are severe, and anything high enough to avoid disrupting shipping would’ve had a massive ecological and visual footprint.
“In terms of finance, environmental considerations and risk, the immersed tunnel was therefore the optimal solution,” Juchem said.
Assembly Line to Ocean Floor
The construction strategy sounds like science fiction, but it’s playing out in real time.
Crews are casting 79 concrete tunnel elements, each measuring 712 feet long and weighing 73,000 tons, at a purpose-built 1,235-acre facility on the Danish island of Lolland. Each element is formed from nine concrete segments poured in sequence.
“Production runs on an assembly line principle,” said Gerhard Cordes, a project director with Femern A/S. “A steel framework is first constructed for each segment, which is approximately 24 meters long. It’s then cast in concrete, allowed to cure and pushed forward one section at a time so that the next segment can be cast.”
Once complete, each tunnel element is sealed with steel bulkheads, floated into a lock system and guided to its final position in the trench, about 40 feet below the seabed.
Despite their weight, the elements float with just enough buoyancy to be maneuvered using specially designed pontoons and steel cables. A GPS-enabled alignment system ensures they’re guided with millimeter accuracy.
“The elements are immersed on steel cables and joined to the elements already installed by positioning the immersion pontoons,” Cordes said. “A locking system (pin and catch) secures the exact position relative to the preceding element and the alignment is ensured by adjustable supports.”
Once aligned, the joint is sealed using only water pressure.
“The water pressure from the opposite end of the element compresses the joint,” Cordes said. “The gravel layer in the tunnel trench is laid out before immersion and serves as an accurate foundation.”
It’s not welding. It’s more like interlocking stone, except each piece weighs more than a fully loaded aircraft carrier.
No Room for Error
A single misalignment could stall progress, delay schedules and complicate the precision required to connect the next segment.
There’s no easy do-over. Once placed, these elements aren’t coming back up.
That’s why the team runs detailed simulations in advance and monitors every placement in real time using underwater cameras and sensors. Each segment is a calculated risk—and a high-stakes test of coordination and trust in the system.
Environmental Tradeoffs—Without the Greenwashing
The Baltic Sea is home to porpoises, nesting seabirds and fragile marine ecosystems. Environmental scrutiny of the project has been intense—and justified.
But Femern A/S leaned heavily on experience from previous fixed links, like Denmark’s Øresund and Great Belt projects, to reduce the project’s footprint.
“The planning of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel draws on the experiences from the fixed links across the Great Belt and the Øresund, which have shown that negative environmental impacts can be avoided through careful planning and implementation of construction work,” Juchem said.
That includes relocating or replanting affected areas, minimizing on-site disruption and restoring natural habitats. In Lolland, Femern A/S has pledged to replace at least twice the area of disturbed land.
Is it perfect? No. But it’s a far cry from the zero-mitigation approach common to megaprojects just a few decades ago.
The Project So Big They Built a Tourist Platform
Public interest has been unexpectedly strong. When Femern A/S opened a viewing platform near the construction site, more than 10,000 people showed up in the first month.
Engineers have become de facto tour guides. And a project once known only to planners is now attracting visitors, photographers and school groups—long before its ribbon-cutting.
What Megaprojects Can Learn from Fehmarnbelt
This endeavor to link Denmark and Germany is about proving that modular construction, real-time simulation, environmental offsetting and international coordination don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Want a playbook?
Modular builds. Digital modeling. Live underwater alignment. Mitigation-first planning. Public transparency. It’s a strategy other megaprojects would be smart to copy.
The Fehmarnbelt tunnel, above all, is showing what’s possible when you combine high-stakes logistics with long-term thinking—and pour 73,000 tons of concrete at a time.
