The art of keeping step on both sides of the border

In many respects, the Fehmarnbelt link is a unique construction project. This also applies to the upcoming official process where Denmark and Germany face a task of a scale never seen before.  

“We’re using our experience from Storebælt and Øresund, but this time around the challenges are larger and untested,” says Project Manager, Rasmus Warborg Larsen, Femern A/S, who is responsible for planning the procedures for the Danish official process. 

Two national lines
As the fixed link must be approved in both Denmark and Germany, the process will follow two national lines. It will, therefore, be a challenge in itself to ensure that the content is consistent and that progress is identical. Or to put it differently, both parties must keep in step on both sides of the border. 

The formal and common starting point for the Fehmarnbelt fixed link is the treaty between Denmark and Germany, which was signed in September 2008 and approved in 2009 by the Danish Parliament, Folketinget, and by the Bundestag in Berlin. The approval procedures are based on EU directives although the directives are implemented differently in the two countries. 

Danish approval will take the form of a Construction Act following the so-called Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The environmental investigation programme has been completed and documentation is underway. The work relating to the preparation of the EIA statement is expected to be completed in the autumn of 2012. This will be followed by publication and a public consultation into the environmental effects. 

Following the consultation, any responses will be answered in a document that will subsequently be published. On the basis of the EIA statement, the Ministry of Transport will draft a bill for a Construction Act which will also be sent for public consultation. The final stage in the process is the passing of the Construction Act by the Danish Parliament, which is expected to take place before the end of 2013. 

Administrative process in Germany
In Germany, the approval process is an administrative process which starts with Femern A/S’ submission of a construction permit application. The EIA statement will form part of the application to the authorities in Schleswig-Holstein. 

Regarding the preparation of the application material, Femern A/S is co-operating with Schleswig-Holstein’s Road Directorate (Strassenbau und Verkehr department in Lubeck). The Strassenbau und Verkehr department in Lübeck is the project proponent for the road section of the fixed link. Femern A/S is scheduled to submit the application in the autumn 2012.

During the public hearing process, authorities, organisations and affected individuals are able to submit proposals and comments that will be taken into account before the project is finally approved. The authorities are expected to spend 18 months on the approval. Their decision, therefore, can be expected to be announced during the first six months of 2014. 

The project comes under the UN’s Espoo Convention, which requires an assessment of the cross-border project’s environmental impact. This means that the coast-to-coast project’s eventual cross-border impact must be documented and presented. This will take place concurrently with the publication of the EIA statement and in close co-operation between Femern A/S and the Danish Nature Agency under the Ministry of the Environment in Denmark and the plan approval authority in Schleswig-Holstein.  

Challenges across the border
Stephan Siegert, Project Manager at Femern A/S, is responsible for planning the process on the German side. He anticipates that the procedures over the coming months and years will be far more complex than those of previous major construction projects.  

“In the first case, there is the language,” he says. “It may sound banal but on both sides of the border, the people involved in official procedures need to have documents written in their own language and this has to be considered during the planning stage.” 

“Secondly, the people dealing with the project in Germany and Denmark have little experience of handling projects of this size across national borders. This means there will be a learning process where both parties will have to be flexible and patient. In some situations, it will be necessary to develop new joint solutions which may not necessarily follow traditional, national guidelines and ways of doing things.” 

“Thirdly, the German authorities have stricter requirements for descriptions and documentation than is the case in Denmark. The learning process goes both ways and it’s important to identify what the formal requirements are and what is expedient to require seen in the context of the actual consequences of the requirements.” 

Everybody must be informed
The entire approval process is dependent on everyone affected by the fixed link receiving detailed and relevant information about the consequences. This, of course, applies to other authorities, other stakeholders – and not least, the general public, i.e. the local residents on both sides of the Fehmarnbelt.  

Femern A/S has already held public hearings in connection with the so-called scoping report which sets out the scope of the environmental investigations and the project. Hearings will also be held in connection with the publication of the EIA statement. Supplementary hearings may also be relevant. 

At the same time, Femern A/S communicates new results and points of view about the project through relevant platforms such as at www.femern.com, newsletters, information meetings and in the mass media. Rasmus Warborg Larsen summarises his expectations for the process as follows: 

“Everyone involved will go through two years of mental and practical commuting between Rødby and Kiel and undertake regular trips to Copenhagen and Berlin. All this is bound to be a time-consuming and unusual project: challenging and, in some cases, difficult. To succeed, everyone, the authorities in Germany and Denmark, the employees of Femern A/S and our partners, need to be committed to working together and thinking in new and different ways.”