Ramboll, Arup and TEC win Danish tunnel consultancy contract

Ramboll, Arup and TEC Tunnel Engineering Consultants have won a bid to be the client consultants for Femern A/S, who is designing the Fehmarn fixed link between Denmark and Germany, a tunnel which will reduce the distance between the two countries to a mere 10 minutes by car. The contract is valued at €114 million and lasts 15 years.

In a bid to improve the connectivity between Germany and Denmark, the Fehmarnbelt tunnel is being developed. The tunnel, which will facilitate the flow of both rail and vehicles, covers 18.1 kilometres mouth to mouth. The immersed tunnel, upon completion, will be the longest such tunnel in the world. The project will also be one of the largest construction projects in Denmark’s history – total construction costs are estimated at €5.5 billion* – whose completion date has been pushed back more than ten years.

Femern A/S, the organisation responsible for the design, development and future operation of the tunnel, recently announced that it has picked the Ramboll-Arup-TEC Joint Venture, a venture between Arup, TEC Tunnel Engineering Consultants (a joint venture formed with Royal HaskoningDHV and Witteveen+Bos) and Ramboll, as the winners of client consultancy for the project, in a €114 million contract with a tenure of 15 years.

The consortium which together contributes 70 staff to the project full time, whose members include a total of 30,000 experts, is tasked with delivering technical advisory services during the construction phase of the project. The firms have worked on the project since 2009, since when they collaborated on the design of the massive infrastructure project.

Søren Brøndum, Ramboll’s Executive Director of Transport, remarks about the win that it is “gratifying” to have won the contract for client consultancy for such an important project as the Fehmarn tunnel.” He adds, “The project is technically challenging and complex, which goes well with our comprehensive specialist expertise at Ramboll. At the same time, we already have thorough knowledge of the project from the design phase. I look forward to the continued cooperation, both within the consortium and with the entrepreneur.”

The Technical Director of Femern A/S remarks, “We have received a good and qualified offer from the Ramboll-Arup-TEC consortium. Choosing them for this project provides us with highly qualified client consultancy, especially when the construction project starts in earnest after the German regulatory approval.”

* Under the bilateral agreement concluded between the two countries, Denmark will bear the entire cost of the project, with the exception of a European subsidy, and acquires the right to charge a toll.