Design of Denmark’s new Storstrøm Bridge gets EU support

The EU’s TEN-T Programme will co-fund with over €15 million design studies preparing the construction of the new double-track rail and road bridge in Storstrøm, Denmark. The new bridge connecting Zealand/Masnedø and Falster is to improve rail links between Scandinavia and Central Europe.

The current Storstrøm Bridge built in 1937 is in a poor state, and its full repair is not feasible. Moreover, the bridge’s single-track rail line is not up to today’s demand for passenger and freight transport.

This project will carry out studies on the Environmental Impact Assessment, conceptual design and preparation of the construction act for a new, 3.9 km double-track rail and road bridge. The new bridge will increase the rail transport capacity on the line linking Zealand and the Falster islands and improve the overall rail capacity between Scandinavia and Central Europe.

This project is part of a larger rail infrastructure development plan aiming at the removal of a bottleneck in the medium-term range by improving the capacity of the railway line between the Øresund fixed link and Hamburg/Bremen/Hannover (Priority Project 20). Once completed, the larger project is planned to accommodate more than 40,000 trains annually – equal to more than 100 trains a day. In addition to creating a significantly improved railway axis between Central Europe and Scandinavia, the project will relieve congestion on the Great Belt route across Denmark via Funen and Jutland to North Germany, particularly on the rail network.

The project was selected for EU funding with the assistance of external experts under the TEN-T Multiannual Call 2013, priority projects. Its implementation will be monitored by INEA, the European Commission’s Innovation and Networks Executive Agency.

The new system is to become fully operational by the end of 2015.