Europe’s tiny little island with a huge £3.4bn bridge built through the middle of it | World | News
The Great Belt Fixed Link is one of the largest bridges in the world, with the complete link between the islands of Zealand and Funen in Denmark being 11 miles long.
It incorporates three separate elements – the suspension Eastern Bridge, the low-level Western Bridge and the undersea bored tunnel, the Eastern Tunnel. The tiny island of Sprogo is where the bridge and tunnel meet.
Built between 1988 and 1998, an average of 27,000 cars transverse per day, which can rise to 40,000 on busy summer days in peak season. On August 7 2022, a record 61,528 passed the bridge in 24 hours.
By interconnecting regions of Denmark, the link has made travel much easier. It replaced the Great Belt Ferries service, which entered service in 1883.
Since its construction, travel time has been cut from about 90 minutes by ferry (including waiting times at the ports), to just 10-15 minutes by car. Additionally, train journeys have been reduced by an hour.
A total of 8,000 cars used the ferries everyday, but traffic saw an increase of 127 percent within its first year of opening thanks to its convenience.
The island of Sprogo is where the bridge and tunnel meet. It is in the centre of the Great Belt strait, 4.2 miles from Zeeland and 5 miles from Funen. The island was dramatically reconfigured during the construction of the link, with land reclamation increasing the area from 94 acres to 381.
There are remains of buildings on the original part of the island from the beginning of the 12th-century – a fortress built by the order of King Valdemar the Great.
The lighthouse was built by the mail service in 1868, replacing an older structure from 1809 and is built in the fortress’ foundations.
The Eastern Bridge, with its two 254-metre pylons, are actually the highest points in Denmark. Its cables have a free span of 1,624 metres, making it the second longest in the world.
It is 6,790-metres long with a passage height of 65 metres, meaning even the world’s biggest cruise ships can pass through. It also has the sixth longest main span in the world.
Meanwhile, the East Tunnel is 8,024 metres long, making it Europe’s second longest bored tunnel after the Channel Tunnel. During its construction, it had a decompression sickness incidence of 0.14 percent.
During its construction, the sea bed gave way and one of the tunnels was flooded, but no workers were injured.
The West Bridge has a vertical clearance for ships of 18 metres and has 62 pillars supporting 63 sections. It is actually made up of two adjacent bridges, with the north carrying rail traffic and the south for road traffic.
Together with the New Little Belt Bridge – between Jutland and Funen – the link provides a continuous road and rail connection between Copenhagen and the Danish mainland.
In fact, together with the Øresund Bridge, and the two Little Belt bridges, the link provides a direct fixed connection between western Continental Europe and northern Scandinavia, eventually connecting all parts of the European Union except Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, and outlying islands.
Environmental considerations were an integral part of the link’s construction. In 2009, seven large wind turbines were erected in the sea north of Sprogo island, to contribute to the electrical demand of the link.
Despite increases in air pollution due to increased road traffic volume, significant energy savings were made by switching from ferry to a fixed link.
Additionally, domestic air travel over the Great Belt was significantly reduced, as flights between Copenhagen and Odense and Esbjerg were ceased following the link’s construction.
