Öresund Bridge, 1996-2000
How would you like to drive a car from the North Cape, at the northernmost
tip of Norway, to the southernmost tip of Italy? If you have long harbored
this wish, since July 1st, 2000, there has been nothing to stop you doing it.
That was the date on which a fixed link 10 miles long was opened between
the Danish capital of Malmö, thus closing the last major gap in the European
road and rail network.
HOCHTIEF, acting as a member of an international consortium, worked on this
$ 1 billion project to build a bridge across the Öresund, the stretch of water
between Sweden and Denmark. It was mainly because of its experience with
the construction of the East Bridge over the Great Belt that HOCHTIEF was
entrusted with the management of the Technical Office. The company was also
responsible for the offshore work and supervised the production of the girders
for the access bridges in Cadiz.
As the second-biggest partner in the "Sundlink" consortium, HOCHTIEF was also involved
in the construction of the 4¾-mile double-decker bridge, the masterpiece in which is a suspension
bridge 3,600 feet long. It has to be a double-decker in order to be able to carry both road and
rail traffic. Its free span of 1,600 feet and its clear height of 187 feet above the main shipping
lane off Malmö ensure that ships can pass unhindered from the North Sea to the Baltic.
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