Posted on January 16, 2019
The Government of Denmark and the local Hvidovre Municipality have revealed a plan to expand the City of Copenhagen by creating nine islands off its southern coast writes Dag Pike.
The city has already expanded its land area by creating new islands to the north and according to the Interior Minister, Simon Emil Ammitzbøll-Bille, these proposed new islands are designed to bolster the capital’s attractiveness in the eyes of international businesses and could result in the creation of some 12,000 jobs. The government has said that the Holmene project would alleviate a shortage of land in the Danish capital but this project still requires parliamentary approval.
These new islands would create 3.1 million square metres of new land which would be divided between the nine islands which vary in size. The location of the islands is in the shallow sea area off land that was previously reclaimed and it is claimed that 17 kilometres of new coastline would be created. The 26 million cubic metres of material required to create the islands would largely come from waste material from other building sites with some being dredged from the sea.
It is anticipated that one of the islands would be given over to handle waste products from the city and for energy storage and similar ‘green’ projects. There would be space for 380 new businesses to be developed in what some observers are calling ‘The Silicon Valley of Denmark’ and it is estimated that more than €7 billion of economic activity would be generated. Other areas, amounting to 700,000 square metres would be allocated as nature reserves.
These new islands would be created in the waters that are currently dominated by a large power station on the shore and with wind turbine generators in the offshore waters. Incorporated into the project would be a new marina and facilities for other water sports. The construction site is in the waters off the 450 hectares Avedøre Holme district, which was created in the 1960s by a massive dredging programme. Work on this capital development programme could begin in 2022, with the first sites ready for occupation six years later and the whole project to be completed by 2040.
Source: Maritime Journal
