Court temporarily halts work on Fehmarnbelt tunnel
Created: 2022-01-17Updated: 2022-01-17, 12:35 p.m
Excavators are at a construction site for the planned Fehmarnbelt tunnel.
© picture alliance/dpa/archive picture
The work on the Baltic Sea tunnel off Fehmarn has been interrupted.
They should rest until it is clear how the protected reefs along the route will continue.
"This has no impact on the project schedule," says Schleswig-Holstein's Economics Minister Buchholz.
Leipzig - The Federal Administrative Court has asked the state of Schleswig-Holstein to temporarily stop dredging work in the area of protected reefs on the German-Danish Fehmarnbelt tunnel.
It is a standard request from the court to suspend work in the affected area until an urgent application has been decided, a court spokesman said on Monday.
The action alliance against a fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt submitted the application on Thursday.
The "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" had previously reported on it.
The court has no knowledge of how far the work has progressed, the spokesman said.
It is also unclear when a decision on the urgent application can be expected.
Schleswig-Holstein's Economics Minister Bernd Buchholz (FDP) reacted calmly to the court's decision.
"Even if the action alliance should cause a delay in the construction process, the lawsuit will not result in a substantial change in the project itself or the schedule," he said.
The two project developers, Femern A/S and the Schleswig-Holstein State Office for Road Construction and Transport (LBV.SH), are expected to discuss how to proceed on Monday.
"It is clear to the state that there will be no further work in the disputed areas until the Senate makes an urgent decision," said Buchholz.
A spokeswoman for the planning company initially did not confirm a report by "Kieler Nachrichten" on Monday, according to which Femern A/S had already withdrawn a dredger from the construction site on Sunday.
In November 2020, the Federal Administrative Court dismissed lawsuits against the construction of the tunnel.
However, the reefs, which were only discovered after the planning was completed, were left out.
The country should carry out a supplementary procedure for this.
These plans provide for compensation areas for the reefs elsewhere.
On the other hand, the nature conservation association (Nabu), the action alliance and two companies have sued.
In addition, the urgent application has now been submitted.
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The approximately 18-kilometer road and rail tunnel is expected to connect the German Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland by 2029.
The immersed tunnel is intended to reduce the travel time between Hamburg and Copenhagen from five hours to less than three hours in the future.
Immersed tunnels consist of prefabricated concrete sections that are lowered into a trench on the seabed.
dpa
