Femern A/S creates jobs

Femern A/S has stated that around 70 contracts have been concluded for preliminary investigations and planning. During the first six months of the year, Femern A/S has had costs of around 24 million Euros.

As of 1 October, Femern A/S has 60 employees, involved in the management, control and planning of the project. In addition, a further 250 staff at consultants and contractors are engaged in full-time work for Femern A/S.

From a staffing point of view, the environmental studies are still the largest single task, involving more than 100 people.

Design and planning of the bridge and tunnel involve around 75 employees at advisory engineering companies, whereas the geotechnical drilling and investigations keep 50 staff employed at contractors and consultants.

Finally, a number of different specialists are attached to the project, including on navigation investigations and planning of contingency issues both for the construction and operation phases.

Environmental investigations
The objective of the environmental investigations is to collect data to use for environmental evaluation of the Fehmarnbelt project, and these have been ongoing for a year now. During the autumn, Femern A/S will complete its proposal for the scoping report, which precisely describes the investigations and methods which will form the basis of the Environmental Impact Statement.

The authorities responsible in Germany and Denmark will invite authorities, NGOs and the public to comment on the scoping report. The Baltic Sea countries will also be consulted for their views of the environmental investigation programme as a result of the Espoo Convention. The actual Environmental Impact Statement is expected to be ready in around two years.

Femern A/S has divided the ongoing environmental investigations into seven different professional areas and has therefore contracted with seven different consulting firms, each working on their own specialist area.

See Description of environmental investigations.

Design and planning
Since the spring, the two technical advisory groups have each been working on the conceptual design for, respectively, a bridge or a tunnel across the Fehmarnbelt. That is to say a more precise investigation into the possibilities of how a technical solution could look. For example, the technical bridge adviser is looking into different dimensions for the individual bridge spans, whereas the technical tunnel adviser's investigations include possible alternatives for forming the cross-section of the tunnel.

Both the bridge and the tunnel project are included in the extensive environmental impact investigations.

Femern A/S has initiated these equal investigations into a bridge and into a tunnel in order to be able to make the most qualified choice for the final technical solution, taking into account finance, environment and navigational safety issues.

Geotechnical work
The geotechnical drill investigations started in July 2009. The drillings will take place both on land and at sea in a 2 km wide corridor east of the ferry ports in Puttgarden and Rødbyhavn.

The purpose of the drillings is to gather high quality samples of soil and to measure the intensity as well as other significant conditions of the soil.

This year and next year, there will be a total of approximately 50 drillings down to a depth of 100 metres made both at sea and on land, i.e. on Fehmarn and on Lolland. So far, 20 drillings have been completed.