Linking countries
The toll funded Link, which opened in the year 2000, strengthens cultural and economic cooperation between the two countries and paves the way for the Øresund Region’s successful competition with Europe’s other major regional centers.
The Link is placed in an environmentally sensitive area governing the flow of water in and out of the Baltic Sea. Rigorous environmental requirements are thus in force regarding both the construction of the link and the completed structures’ impact on the surrounding environment.
The 16 km long coast-to-coast section comprises the following main elements:
- 0.9 km2 reclaimed peninsula near Copenhagen airport at Kastrup
- 3.7 km long immersed road and railway tunnel under the Drogden navigation channel between Kastrup and the island of Saltholm
- 3.8 km long artificial island south of Saltholm, which is a protected wildlife reserve
- 7.8 km long road and railway bridge between the artificial island and Lernacken in Sweden, crossing the Flintrännan navigation channel with a cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 490 m
Our role in the project
The Link is built, owned and operated by Øresundskonsortiet which is jointly owned (50% each) by the governments of Denmark and Sweden. Ramboll was leading partner in the international consultant joint venture, the Øresund Link Consultants (ØLC). This consortium was appointed as in-house consultant to Øresundskonsortiet in 1993 after winning a design competition for the bridge. ØLC has prepared tender documents including conceptual designs for the three major civil engineering contracts Tunnel, Dredging & Reclamation and Bridges.
The civil engineering contracts were all awarded in 1995 as design and construct contracts, and ØLC’s in-house consultant services were supplemented with design check and supervision of contractors’ design and construction work. Apart from the services on the major civil contracts ØLC performed a wide range of engineering services on mechanical, electrical, environmental, geotechnical, alignment, risk analysis, operational safety etc. The budget for construction cost was DKK 13.9 billion (USD 2.4 billion) in 1990 prices.
