Bridge provides model for the future

Date: 28/10/1999

By Renée Cordes

At 6 a.m. on 14 August, the final section of the Øresund bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden was snapped into position by a floating crane in the middle of the Drogden Channel.

The bridge, built in Spain, was transported in pieces by barge and then locked into place between columns, fitting exactly using what some refer to as the 'Lego principle', with the assistance of high-technology satellite navigation systems.

Six hours later, Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria and Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik met on the bridge to commemorate the rejoining of two countries separated since the Ice Age.

The managers of the fixed rail-road link are now doing all they can to ensure that the 16-kilometre web of tunnels and bridges opens to the public next summer - six months ahead of the original target date.

“We will pay contractors a bonus if the link is opened on 1 July, but not if it opens on 2 July or 3 July,” Sven Lendelius, managing director of Øresundskonsortiet, told European Voice.

The two countries formed the group as a shareholding company, each retaining equal stakes, to oversee the project's construction and manage the link.

The €4.2-billion scheme, dubbed 'spectacular' by former Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock, is the unquestionable jewel in the crown of the EU's priority wish list of 14 Trans-European Network transport projects. It is scheduled to open for traffic nine years after the Danish and Swedish governments first signed an agreement to build it and is one of the few projects which has gone largely according to plan.

The link combines road and rail networks, reduces the need for cumbersome air and sea journeys betwen Copenhagen and Malmö, and joins two countries to one another and the rest of Europe.

By merely building bridges and digging tunnels, two nations will in a single stroke create a new common employment and housing market - and a new region which both think will thrive economically.

The link is made up of three main parts: a 4-kilometre-long tunnel on the sea floor along the Drogden Channel starting on the Danish coast, a 4-kilometre-long artificial island and a 7.8-kilometre bridge from the island across the Flinte Channel to Malmö.

There is still much work to be done before the new traffic artery is open for business, including the final electronic installations, a series of exercises with police and fire departments from both sides to prepare for emergencies and, from January, a series of tests on the rail network.

Behind the project was a company which largely acted as a private entity, inviting sub-contractors from both sides of the Atlantic to bid for contracts, raising funds on the international capital markets and employing about 10,000 people over five years.

Armed with about €54 million from the EU's TENs budget, the two countries sought additional funding on their own and, as of the end of June, had outstanding loans of about €2.7 billion.

Rather than charging taxpayers, the consortium plans to pay back its loans in full by leving tolls on those who use the link, which will vary according to the type of vehicle involved. It will also offer frequent travellers more attractive rates, even though it insists that its normal prices will be competitive with those charged by local ferries. These tolls will cover 100&percent; of the costs.

Paying back the loans should not be a problem. During the first year, 11,000 cars and trucks are expected to cross the link every day, with usage expected to increase by about 1.7&percent; every year. The rail link can handle 7.8 million train passengers and five million tons of rail freight each year.

That is no small feat, given that it involved harmonising two different rail networks. But the managers of the project have proved wrong those who might have thought it was a bridge too far. It is the Commission's fervent hope that, one day, intermodal transport networks will operate across the whole EU with as much ease.