Third Fehmarn Belt element reaches the seabed

Three down, 86 to go. The third tunnel element for the Fehmarnbelt fixed link has been installed on the seabed off Lolland, as construction of the world’s longest immersed tunnel continues.

The third tunnel element for the Fehmarn Belt tunnel has been successfully installed on the seabed off the coast of Lolland in Denmark, bringing the world’s longest immersed tunnel one step closer to completion.

The operation began on Thursday evening when the 217-metre-long, 73,500-tonne concrete element was towed from the tunnel element factory at Rødbyhavn by five tugboats. Immersion began on Friday, and by Saturday morning the element had been connected to the previously installed section of the tunnel.

– Every immersion is a highly demanding precision task involving many interdependent parts. We are therefore very pleased that another element is now safely positioned on the seabed, says Lasse Vester, Deputy Contract Director at Sund & Bælt.

The element has been named after Heiligenhafen, a German coastal town on the Baltic Sea that has maintained trading links with Scandinavia for centuries. Each of the tunnel’s 89 elements is named after a city along the European TEN-T transport corridor.

• More reading: Fehmarn Belt tunnel takes historic step forward