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The Öresund Link

Copenhagen, Denmark to Malmö, Sweden

Spanning the nearly 10-mile wide Øresund Strait between Denmark and Sweden, The Öresund Link consists of three distinct segments: a tunnel, an artificial island, and a bridge.

bird-s-eye view of The Oresund

Drogden Tunnel

The western (Copenhagen) part of the Øresund Link is a 13,287-foot-long (2.5 miles) undersea tunnel composed of 20 prefabricated reinforced concrete segments. Two tubes in the tunnel carry railway tracks, two carry roads and a small fifth tube is provided for emergencies. It is the longest immersed tube tunnel for both road and rail traffic in the world.

Peberholm Island

The Drogden Tunnel emerges from the seabed on a 2.5-mile-long artificial island. Built from Swedish rock and the soil dredged up during the bridge and tunnel construction, the island has an average width of 1,640 feet and lies 20 feet above sea level.

Öresund Bridge

The Öresund Link is completed by a high bridge over the Flintrännan navigation channel and two approach bridges. The high bridge has the longest cable-stayed main span in the world (1,611 feet) for both road and rail traffic. The two pairs of free-standing cable-supporting towers are 669 feet high, allowing shipping 187 feet of head room under the main span. The cable-stayed bridge two-level superstructure is fabricated from steel and concrete. The steel girder supports the upper deck, which accommodates the motorway, and the lower deck where the railway is located. The tracks are placed in a concrete trough along the approach bridges, which changes to a steel deck on the high bridge. With a total length of 25,738 feet (4.87 miles), this is the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe.

History

In 1991, the Danish and Swedish governments signed an agreement to construct a link across the Øresund Channel. Construction began in 1995, the first pylon leg reached its full height on January 18, 1999, and the last bridge section was placed on August 14, 1999.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden met midway across the bridge-tunnel on August 14, 1999 to celebrate its completion, and the official dedication took place on July 1, 2000, with Queen Margrethe II and King Carl XVI Gustaf as the host and hostess of the ceremony

the main span of the Oresund Bridge

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SKC Films Library >> Technology >> Bridge Engineering >> Individual Bridges, A-Z

This page was last updated on May 15, 2017.