I came across this project while watching Megastructures, a programme on National Geographic. I was only 20 at the time and just started my Civil Engineering Degree at Vienna University of Technology. I was totally impressed with the design.

Why would someone come up with a design that turns a bridge into a tunnel? Was that necessary? How did they build the artificial island? All these questions made me want to look more and more into it and understand the thinking behind the final design.

The Project Objective was clear: build a fixed link across Øresund Strait between Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmö(Sweden).

The Challenge? The location

• The Øresund Strait is an important waterway for the international ship traffic between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
• The Copenhagen Airport is the largest airport and a regional hub for the Nordic countries with 26.6 million passengers in 2015.

So the engineers were faced with this:

• build a  bridge tall enough that would allow ships to pass beneath and you hinder the busy Copenhagen Airport
• build a lower bridge and you halt the ship traffic.

The Solution? watch me explain it in the video below.

How would you rate the ingenuity of the engineers?

If you’ve crossed the Øresund Bridge-Tunnel, please get in touch with me,  I’d love to hear from you.

Tim Bolojan

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Below I have put together a list of resources  you might want to take a look at.

Amazing infographic put together by Alfred Elicierto

The Megastructures Documentary on Øresund Bridge

Beyond Plan B Analysis of the project

Beyond Plan B take on the Øresund Bridge