Nearing the end of the tunnel

Femern A/S has prepared the application in collaboration with the Lübeck office of the State Company for Road Construction and Transport of Schleswig-Holstein (LBV Lübeck).

Claus F. Baunkjær, CEO of Femern A/S said: ”This is a significant milestone for the Fehmarnbelt project and an important step towards approval in Germany, which will enable us to start the major construction works in 2015. The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link is not only one of Europe’s largest and most well prepared construction projects by far, it is also a unique combination of engineering innovation, outstanding environmental stewardship and a rock solid financial model. We’re now looking forward to the upcoming process,”

“We don’t know of another European traffic infrastructure project that has been planned and prepared so thoroughly. The Fehmarnbelt tunnel combines an innovative technical construction method, the maximum level of safety, unique focus on environmental concerns, a successfully proven financing concept as well as full transparency in all phases of the project,” Baunkjær continued.

In early July, it was estimated that there were 1,800 objections.

”We are positively surprised by the number of responses as we had prepared for many thousands. Such a number is quite common with consultations on major infrastructure projects in Germany. We’re looking forward to receiving the responses and addressing all comments. We are well prepared and will be attentive to all objections and ideas with a view to making tangible improvements to the project and look into all concerns that need to be addressed,” concluded Claus F. Baunkjær.

The period for lodging objections ended on 3 July 2014 for the general public and organisations while public agencies had a deadline of 7 July 2014. The affected Baltic countries had until 10 July 2014. Once LBV Kiel, has received and registered all enquiries, Femern A/S will be tasked with going through the comments individually and responding to each one.

LBV Kiel will subsequently decide whether to hold non-public meetings between the project’s proponents and the parties that have raised comments or objections and are directly affected. These meetings, which would be conducted by LBV Kiel, will provide a further basis for the plan approval authority to begin work on drawing up the plan approval notice, which also constitutes the construction permission. Femern A/S expects to receive construction permission on the German side in May 2015.

By Jake Frith