The Oresund Link/ The Oresund Bridge (common)

Double track railway and 4 lane motorway bridge

Location: Oresund Strait between Sweden and Denmark

Total length: approx.16km

Longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe

Connects Copenhagen(Danish Capital) and Malmo(major Swedish city)

Purpose: Copenhagen in Denmark needs cheap housing, Malmo in Sweden needs more
jobs

Joint venture of (Constructed by): Hochtict, Skanska, Hojgaard & Schutz, and
Monberg & Thorsen

Designer: Jorgen Nissen, Klaus Falbe Hansen, Niels Gimsing and George Rotne

Engineering Design by: Ove Arup & Partners, Setec, ISC, Gimsing & Madsen

Began 1995

Finished 14 August 1999

Open to public on July 1, 2000

Cost = 5.78 B USD

Toll = 46 EUR (depends on the size of the car;

e.g. 43 EUR for 6m, 206 EUR for 9m)

Daily Traffic, ca. 17,000 road vehicles daily

The speed limit on the motorway is usually 90 km per hour in the tunnel and 110 km per
hour elsewhere on the link.
The Bridge

Cable-stayed bridge(to provide the specific rigidity necessary to carry heavy rail traffic, to
resist large accumulation of ice)

8km (7,845 metres) long

Span length: Girder is supported every 140 m by concrete piers

Main span is 491 m long

Two pairs of free standing cable-supporting towers are 204 m high (60-story building)

160 cables (40 per tower)

57 m from water surface to span

 Above the deck is open space because 1. It kept the bridge design looking clean 2. In
case of a plane crash, free standing tower would help the bridge survive. Without the
cross beam above the road, the towers would be more flexible. In the event of the crash,
less of the impact would be transmitted to rest of the bridge and would stand a better
chance of survival

The Peberholm (Artificial Island)

Built from Swedish rock and the soil dredged up during the bridge and tunnel
construction

Approx. 4 km long

500 m wide

20 m high

Serves as the beginning of the tunnel

The Drogden Tunnel

4km long

3510 m undersea tube tunnel plus 270 m entry tunnels at each end

20 prefabricated reinforced concrete segment (175m long, 38m wide, 8.5m high)

Two for traffics, two for rail, one for emergency

Methods of Construction
The Bridge:

Prefabricated: piers and caissons (North harbour of Malmo, Sweden), span(Cadiz,

Spain)

The only part of the bridge constructed in position was the main piers.

Caissons were placed 14 to 17 m below sea level

Used Svanen to bring piers and span in position

Building the tower:

One tower always stayed 1 m ahead of the other so cranes would not get tangled
Cross beam was added when the towers were 44m high
About 8m from the cross beam, a steel box to hold the steel cables was
integrated into the leg. Another box was added every 12m
The Peberholm:

The reclamation areas (the island and the peninsula) were constructed as basins
surrounded by coarse pebble bunds lined with a geotextile membrane and then
backfilled with the clay till to prevent the suspended sediment from escaping out to
the sea.

Dredging:

Used the Chicago for dredging

To stay on schedule, an average of 11.5 million cubic meters of seabed was needed to
dredge everyday

Had to dredge 11m deep, 46m wide for the location of the tunnel.

Dogden Tunnel:

1 segment every month

In Denmark, the tunnel construction began with 14 million kg of reinforced steed bars.
These were bent and welded into huge steel cage. Then, slid into an enormous mold.
Then the massive framework was encased in more than 7.5 trillion litres of concrete

Problems

Problems
Airports and Ships
- Building a bridge with high towers
could obstruct air traffic (Airport in
Copenhagen, Denmark )
- Building a low bridge would block
large ships
Solutions
To build a tunnel in the Denmark side of the
link, and bridge on the Sweden part.
*Bridge design contest:
Arch design clearance for large
ships decreases as it goes down
towards the water
Suspension bridge not rigid enough
for heavy rail traffic
Cable-Stayed bridge rigid enough
for heavy rail traffic, cheaper
No Dry Land To make an artificial island
Dredging hard rocks They used Castor (most powerful suction
- The Chicago could not dredge ultra- dredger in the world, has 60 cutting teeth
hard rock (Copenhagen limestone) each weighing over 20kg)
- 200 teeth were destroyed every day,
total of 52 000
Bombs from the past -
- 16 bombs
Cultural Gaps
- Rails dont drive on the same -
directions
- Different electrical voltages -Engineers needed to design a computerized
resetter stones so that the different train
computers could communicate, also need to
create stabilize wording so all train operators
could understand the instructions
Firefighting equipment didnt fit in
- -They put both coupling on every water
each other hydrant
No machine in the world could lift the Any holes was plugged with giant steel plates
prefabricated segment to make them float.
They built a lock system to bring the water to
the factory, and then the segment to the
location of the tunnel
Sinking the segment (see last page for explanation)
One segment collapsed Still useable
- Human error
Vessel for Caisson They built a vessel called Catamaran. Then
- Caissons were 22m high, and by flooding the dry dock (same concept as
Oresund Strait was only 7m deep, so the lock system used in prefabricated
they cannot be floated but have to be segment), the catamaran could sail over the
carried by a vessel foundation
Rust The bridge was constructed to contain vast
system of dehumidifiers (keep the air inside
below 60 percent relative humidity)
Inspection of the bridge They put a motorized gantry
After construction, they discovered that bolts They had to tear up the concrete. Stopping
were corroding the corrosion started with removing the nuts
and blast the bolts clean.

Environmental Impact

Huge clouds from dredging could kill large areas of the sea grass that feeds and shelters
marine life. Since dredging had a major part in the construction, Denmark and Sweden
had a pact that if more than 5 percent of the debris was spilled, dredging must stop.

In return, underwater part of the bridge have become an artificial reef covered in
mussels and clams providing food and shelter for sea creatures
 Once placed, the elements are joined;
first by bringing rubber gasket at the
joint into contact with the steel face
of the previously placed tunnel
element, and then draining the joint
chamber, thereby mobilising the full
hydrostatic water pressure on the
tunnel cross section remote end.