Engineering : Denmark To Build 20 Km Bridge

COPENHAGEN, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Denmark and Germany agreed on Wednesday to build a 20 km (12 miles) bridge connecting the two countries over the Baltic Sea’s Fehmarn Strait.

The bridge will cost 32 billion Danish crowns ($6.2 billion), financed and owned entirely by Denmark. Construction will begin in 2012 and the cost will be recouped through tolls.

The bridge will have a four-lane highway and a two-track railway connecting Rodby in Denmark and Puttgarden in Germany. It will cut the four-and-a-half hour trip between Copenhagen and Hamburg by one hour when it opens in 2018.

Some German environmental groups argued against the bridge, but Danish Transport Minister Carina Christensen said that it would lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions compared with the ferries that cross the strait now.

This is the third major transport link built in Denmark in recent years. A bridge connecting the Danish islands of Zealand, home to Copenhagen, and Funen opened in 1998.

Two years later Sweden and Denmark were connected by the Oresund bridge between Malmo and Copenhagen.