Finished tunnel

A tour through the tunnel

The fixed link under the Fehmarnbelt will be one of the world’s longest car drives through a tunnel.

The experience of future motorists will, therefore, significantly influence the design and appearance of the tunnel’s interior. Aesthetic effects such as varied lighting will, for instance, ensure that motorists have a feeling of quality and safety during their journey through the 18 km tunnel.

Moving motifs on the wall
When entering the tunnel, motorists’ first impression will be the mobile lighting along one of the tunnel walls. Over a distance of 1.5 km the tunnel’s right wall will display ”live” motifs powered by LED diodes. In the preliminary design, these motifs of flying flocks of birds will symbolise the traffic corridor known as the ”Fugleflugtslinjen” (literally translated as “bird flight line”) of which Fehmarnbelt is a part.

Tunnel indvendig_fugle

The moving motifs on the wall will be repeated along a 1.5 km section midway through the tunnel and along the final 1.5 km before the exit. During their 10 minute journey, motorists will therefore experience the one minute moving motifs three times.

Coloured zones
To sharpen drivers’ awareness there will be differently coloured illuminated zones during the tunnel journey. At intervals, the normal white light, which also illuminates the carriageway, will be interspersed by strong colours over a length of approx. 50 m. The first coloured zone will be visible approx. 1 km into the tunnel and the distance between the zones will gradually decrease so that midway in the tunnel, there will be 180 m between two coloured zones.

Tunnel indvendig_lilla

The colours will vary from lilac at the entrance to blue, green and finally yellow in the middle of the tunnel and then revert to the same colour scale, i.e. back to lilac, just before the exit. The coloured zones will contain no shades of red in order to avoid any conflict with the motorists’ brake lights. Altogether, motorists will pass through a total of 22 coloured zones inside the tunnel.

Tunnel indvendig_grøn

The coloured zones and the varying distance between them will indicate to motorists how far they have driven. As they proceed on their journey, the colours will become lighter, more pronounced and more frequent the closer motorists get to the tunnel’s midway point. This will also provide a clear indication to motorists of when they reach the middle and that they are now heading towards the exit.

Tunnel indvendig_gul

In this way, the journey will give motorists the impression of passing through a mountainous area with numerous tunnels. Motorists in the Fehmarnbelt tunnel will feel that their journey is divided into less monotonous sections - just as the landscape changes when driving along normal roads.