The borings started in July 2009 – both on land and at sea. The onshore borings will continue until the winter of 2009 while the offshore borings will be stopped in October 2009. In the spring of 2010 the boring works will resume and are expected to be finished in the autumn of 2010.

The boring works take place on land as well as at sea in a 2 km wide corridor east of the ferry ports at Rødbyhavn and Puttgarden. The boring depth will be a maximum of 100 m below the sea bed or ground level.

The purpose of the boring is to extract high quality soil samples and to measure strength and other important soil characteristics.

The extracted samples will be carefully sealed and stored in refrigerated containers for subsequent transport to a laboratory for advanced testing. The advanced laboratory works will be performed by the Danish specialised firm GEO.

Together with the previous seismic investigations and geoelectrical measurements, the results of the boring work will provide a better understanding of the ground conditions – i.e. the location and nature of the different soil layers.

It is crucial for the future Fehmarnbelt project that engineers have accurate and detailed knowledge of the soil layers upon which the structure will be founded. The result of the ground investigations will also contribute significantly to the final decision concerning the link’s alignment.

The boring works will be carried out by the highly specialised Dutch contractor Fugro Engineers BV on behalf of Femern A/S.