MWB Bio - Details Born in 1945, Mikael W. Braestrup obtained his Ph.D. in structural engineering from the Technical University of Denmark in 1970. After spending two years as a volunteer in charge of low-cost road construction in Peru he was engaged in structural concrete research and teaching in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Cambridge, U.K. He joined the consulting company Ramboll in 1979, and worked during five years on the design and construction of the offshore pipelines of the Danish Natural Gas Transmission System. Subsequently he has headed the Ramboll departments of Marine Pipelines and Underwater Technology, and of Knowledge and Development, managing a number of research projects. During the period 1992 - 2005 he worked in the Ramboll Department of Bridges, a major assignment being the preparation of the design basis, with the application of Eurocodes, to the 16 km Øresund Link road and rail strait crossing between Denmark and Sweden. Since 2005 he is attached to the Ramboll Oil & Gas Department of Pipelines and Subsea. Dr Braestrup is an active member of several of international associations (fib (CEB FIP), IABSE, ACI), and has served on several Danish code committees. He is the author of a substantial number of papers, monographs and reports on concrete plasticity, marine pipelines, and bridge and tunnel projects. DANISH STRAIT CROSSINGS: THE FEMERN BÆLT LINK BETWEEN DENMARK AND GERMANY Mikael W Braestrup, M Sc, Ph D, Senior Engineer, RAMBOLL, Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: mwb@ramboll.com Abstract The Femern Bælt Tunnel, scheduled to open for traffic in 2021, will join Denmark and Germany by a four-lane motorway and a dual track electrified railway. With an immersed length of 17.6 km (11 miles) it will be the longest immersed tunnel in the world, as well as the longest tunnel of any kind for combined road and rail traffic. The EUR 7,400 million toll funded coast-coast crossing will be sponsored by the Danish government, Germany being responsible for the landworks on the German side only. The owner and operator will be the Danish state-owned company Femern A/S, who will finance the construction by loans guaranteed by the Danish government and paid back by road tolls and railway user fees. Femern Bælt Link location The presentation will review the 20th century development of Danish strait crossings, and describe the inception, design, fabrication and installation of the Femern Bælt immersed tunnel. The construction will follow the principles successfully adopted for the 3.5 km Tunnel of the Øresund Link between Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmö in Sweden, opened for traffic in 2000. A construction yard will be established to pre-fabricate 79 standard tunnel elements of length 217 m and 10 special elements, 46 m long, accommodating mechanical and electrical equipment, as well as access for maintenance.