The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link project forms an important step to build the European transport network to connect Scandinavia with Central Europe.
In future the travelling time between Hamburg and Copenhagen will be cut down from 4.5 h down to 2.5 h and consequently reduces the CO2 emission for transportation.

A 18 km long immersed tunnel, containing each two motorway and railways tubes, forms the heart of this link.
While the future tunnel will be operated and serviced by Femern A/S, a company owned by the Danish government, the construction of the tunnel is awarded to the Femern Link Contractor consortium (FLC), formed by the major European Construction companies Aarsleff (Denmark), Vinci, Soletanche Bachy (France), Max Bögl, BAM Infra, BAM International, Wayss & Freytag (Germany), Dredging International, CFE Group (Belgium).
The project is funded by the State of Denmark and co-financed by the European facility “Connecting Europe”. The total budget for the Fehmarnbelt link is 7.1 billion Euro.

Casting of mock-up with 2 Stationary Concrete Pumps BSA 2108 HP E and 2 Placing Booms MXR 32-4

Participation of Putzmeister
During the project conceptional engineering phase, the concrete feed by pumps and the concrete cast by distributors was identified to produce the tunnel elements. Putzmeister was awarded for the supply of the concreting equipment. The contracted package consists of 16 stationary concrete pumps, 30 stationary concrete placing booms, 40 manual distributors and more than 13 km of concrete delivery line.

Project Timeline
While the first groundbreaking in Denmark started in 2020, construction works in Germany began in 2021. The release for public traffic is planned for 2029.
The production of the tunnel elements is scheduled to commence in 2023. Putzmeister supplies started in October 2021 with equipment for the First Site Trial Concreting (FSTC), and comprises 7 lots, while the last lot was supplied early 2023.

Casting of tunnel floor with Swivel distributor SV 7-3

Manufacturing Process
79 standard and 10 special tunnel elements will form the complete immersed tunnel. Each standard element being 217 m long and 41m wide, consists of 9 tunnel segments.
Since the high-quality standards requires a controlled production process, the tunnel elements will be produced in 3 large production halls, independent from environmental influences.
The enormous amount of 2.5 Mio. cbm of special concrete will be casted into the tunnel formworks using Putzmeister concreting equipment.
When casting a tunnel segment, up to 6 placing booms will work simultaneously. Each placing boom will be fed by one stationary concrete pump, located at a concrete production plant, and connected by a pipeline up to 400 m long.
While concrete will be fed into the formworks from top by the placing booms, Putzmeister rotary and swivel distributors, installed inside the formwork, will be used to place the concrete at the segment’s bottom.
After the production of a tunnel element is complete, the floating tunnel elements will be towed from shore to sea by tugboats and will then be flooded, lowered, and placed into position.

Project Structure
By its nature by combining elements of a classic investment project with newly developed technological solutions, the present project forms a hybrid project. Increase of complexity is given, as some work streams may need to move on in parallel, while others may need to follow a sequence.
In addition to this, the high number of interfaces, including the client, and several Putzmeister internal departments and companies, as well as suppliers, the project requests high professional and experienced project management capabilities, that also includes stakeholder and risk management capabilities.

The high level of complexity, especially against the background of unexpected global political and economic developments, places extraordinary demands on the project management to successfully complete the project within the specified budget and schedule.

Project Execution & Milestones
After initiating first sales activities and feasibility studies in 2010, a tender document was published by end of 2020, which was responded by a Putzmeister proposal. Successfully completing an intense contract negotiation process, that involved project experts of all Putzmeister departments, a supply contract was closed by August 2021.
Project specific engineering and material procurement started immediately after project start, assuring timely deliveries to construction site for the First Site Trial Concreting, initially set up for October 2021. Subsequent deliveries follow in six lots until end of Q1/2023. The Putzmeister machine design was successfully proven at the 1st and 2nd mock-up concrete cast in 2022. Full-scale tunnel segments were cast on a test site in the production plant in order to test the processes and to be able to evaluate the quality of the finished part. Start of production is for the first first part
of segment of the tunnel element in the production hall is planned for 2023.

Lowering and connecting the tunnel elements

Benefits for Putzmeister Group
For Putzmeister, the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link project represents the largest single project in the company’s history in terms of sales volume, numbers of machines sold and contribution to the company’s success.
Over the course of the project, we expect additional sales of Putzmeister genuine wear and spare parts and our qualified services. The project represents an important reference in the field of large-scale construction sites, precast fabrication and infrastructure projects and will therefore increases Putzmeister’s visibility. At the same time, it testifies to the industry’s confidence in the Putzmeister brand and its quality.
Through the close cooperation over the entire duration of the project, Putzmeister benefits from the knowledge and experience gained.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the project promotes and strengthens the cross-company and cross-divisional collaboration.

Conclusion
The successful course of the project demonstrates that Putzmeister can handle complex projects by maintaining skilled professional project and commercial contract managers, providing sophisticated project management methods, including reporting tools, risk assessment as well as risk, cost, time and quality management.
Putzmeister proved being able to understand and adopt to market requirements and special needs to jointly achieve the project goal together with the client. 

Trans-European Transport Network

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published by Putzmeister Industrial Technology