The Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, Denmark's largest infrastructure project and one of the most ambitious projects in Europe, will link Scandinavia and continental Europe via a green corridor that will reduce the connection between Denmark and Germany to just seven minutes by train and 10 minutes by car.
The Spanish consortium formed by the companies SICE - Cobra was awarded the project for the design and construction of the electromechanical installations of the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel, for a total of around 4 billion DKK, just over 530 million euros. The contract, which is part of a total infrastructure project valued at more than DKK 55 billion, consists of the construction of an 18km underwater tunnel that will connect northern Germany with Denmark, considerably reducing connection times between continental Europe (Hamburg) and Scandinavia (Copenhagen/Malmö).
The contract places special emphasis on energy-efficient solutions and solutions that adapt to the green technologies of the future, ensuring of course that the tunnel is a safe infrastructure for both road and rail users. The tunnel facilities as well as the traffic in the tunnel will be monitored 24 hours a day to ensure that any incidents are detected and dealt with.
Constructively, the tunnel will have four tubes, in addition to a service gallery:
- 2 for road, each with two lanes plus an emergency lane;
- 2 for railroads.
This "design & build" contract covers the design, installation, testing, commissioning and maintenance of the tunnel's electromechanical systems, with an estimated duration of 6 years. The technological systems included in the contract will have the highest levels of reliability, availability, maintainability and safety; framed under the acronym "MEICA" (Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation, Control & Automation), it includes the following:
Mechanical Systems
- Ventilation of road tunnels, railway tunnels and service tunnel pressurization.
- Drainage;
- Emergency doors;
- Fire Extinguishing
- Trays, Pipes, etc.
- Elevators
Electrical Systems
- Medium and Low Voltage Electrical Distribution
- Emergency power supply to critical systems
- Intelligent Lighting System (including screens for daylight entry at entry and exit points);
- Emergency Lighting System.
Instrumentation, Control & Automation (ICA)
- Monitoring and Surveillance Systems (CCTV, Automatic Incident Detection, Air Quality Monitoring, Fire Detection and Access Control Systems);
- Traffic management systems inside the tunnel and its accesses by means of variable message panels, barriers to close the tunnel to traffic and weather stations.
- Emergency Communications Systems (Public Address, TETRA Radio System, GSM-R, GSM, FM and DAB, Emergency Road Telephones).
- IT Platform that integrates the SCADA Control Systems: SICE's flagship product (SIDERA) is the key piece of the Tunnel Control Center's Operations Control and Management System. The objective of the tunnel operation is to achieve zero CO2 emissions, for which energy management strategies and solutions will be effectively implemented in the tunnel.
