The Øresund (Danish) or Öresund (Swedish) Bridge is a four-lane motorway and twin-track railway bridge that links Copenhagen and Malmö. The two-deck bridge at the Swedish end of the crossing is 4.9 miles long, and terminates on the artificial island of Peberholm, from where the 2.5 mile Drogden Tunnel runs to Amager, in Denmark. It is Europe's longest combined road and rail bridge. The tunnel was necessary to prevent interference with the flight path for Copenhagen Airport, and to provide a clear passage for ships and ice floes.
The bridge, the principal engineering design of which was undertaken by Ove Arup, was built by a joint venture between Hochtief (Germany), Skanska (Sweden), Højgaard & Schultz (Denmark), and Monberg & Thorsen (Denmark). Construction commenced in 1995 and was completed in August 1999, three months ahead of schedule, at a cost of c.€4bn. The official dedication took place on 1 July 2000. The bridge weighs in at 81,000 tons. The three cable-stayed sections together total 1,611 feet (a third of a mile) in length, and are slung from concrete towers 669 feet high, providing 187 feet of headroom for shipping. Otherwise the bridge is supported on concrete piers spaced at intervals of 459 feet.
Peberholm - Pepper Islet - so-called to partner the nearby natural Saltholm - is built from Swedish rock and the material dredged during construction of the bridge and, in particular, from the trench in which sits the tunnel. The island is 2.5 miles long and averages a third of a mile wide. On the island the train tracks emerge from the lower deck of the bridge and splay out to parallel the vehicular traffic. The Drogden Tunnel comprises 2.2 miles of immersed tube, in twenty concrete sections of 54,000 tons each, 125 feet wide, the largest in the world, plus approach tunnels of 886 feet each. Five side-by-side tubes accommodate two train lines, two lanes of vehicles in either direction, and services and emergency access.
(Photographs by Abi Smith.)
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