Posted on February 10, 2022
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has rejected an appeal from an ecological activist group to stop dredging on the German side of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel.
The 18km rail and road tunnel between Germany and Denmark, which is the largest construction project in northern Europe, was called out by the Alliance Against a Fixed Fehmarnbelt Link for dredging off the island of Fehmarn in an area with protected reefs.
Last month, the alliance made an emergency application to the Federal Administrative Court to halt the work. The court recommended Femern A/S to stop dredging in one small area while the application was investigated in full, which it did in one area of newly discovered reefs.
The court has now rejected the appeal. The Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Transport had given special dispensation to the project’s Fehmarn Belt Contractors (FBC) to dredge in the reef areas provided it replaced them with new reefs elsewhere in the waters off Fehmarn.
FBC, a joint venture between Dutch dredging and marine contractors Boskalis and Van Oord, is responsible for various dredging and hydraulic engineering activities related to the construction of the tunnel.
A spokesperson for Femern A/S said: “We are pleased that the Federal Administrative Court has rejected the emergency appeal. There have been misleading media reports in recent weeks about a construction stop at the German tunnel construction site. There has never been a construction stop. We have only suspended work in the small area where the last reef structures are still present until the urgent appeal has been decided.
“All other work on the German construction site – both on land and at sea – has continued as planned. After the decision of the Federal Administrative Court, we will now also continue work in the mentioned area.”
Work continues on the Fehmarnbelt, which will be an immersed tube tunnel that houses a four-lane motorway next to two electrified railway tracks connecting the Danish island of Lolland with the German island of Fehmarn.
It will be the world’s longest immersed tube tunnel and the world’s longest road and rail tunnel under water when complete. The tunnel will be primarily formed of 79 individual 217m long sections – each 42.2m wide and 8.9m tall.
Designed for speeds of up to 200 km/h, the new road will cut journey times between Denmark and Germany to seven minutes. It currently takes an hour by ferry.
