Oresund bridge @25: All you want to know about engineering marvel that connects Sweden and Denmark

Hyderabad/ Sweden: The Oresund bridge, a marvel of modern engineering, turns 25 years old on July 1. The crime series, ‘The Bridge,’ has catapulted the Øresund bridge to international fame. The Oresund bridge connects the countries of Sweden and Denmark across the Oresund Strait, which links the Baltic Sea to the North Sea. It is a combined road and railway bridge and tunnel, with a large portion going underwater in order to accommodate ships plying in that region.

Mega Engineering Project

The Oresund bridge is a mega-engineering project comprising a combined rail and road bridge and tunnel. Developed on two levels, it combines a 16 km long double-track railway and a four-lane motorway running on a 7.8 km long three-section, cable-stayed bridge from Malmö up to a height of 57 meters over the Flintrännan channel to the 4 km long artificial island of Peberholm. Peberholm connects the bridge to a 4 km immersed tunnel, the Drøgen tunnel, ending in a 1 km long peninsula on the coast of Copenhagen.

Bilateral agreement and joint venture

In 1991, the Danish and Swedish parliaments issued a bilateral agreement on the building of the Oresund bridge. In 1993, Øresundskonsortiet, a joint venture between the state companies Svedab (Sweden) and A/S Øresundsforbindelsen (Denmark), chose the two-level bridge designed by Danish architect Georg Rotne for ASO Group, a joint venture between private firms from Britain, France, and Denmark. In 1995, the construction work bid was won by Sundlink Contractors HB, a Swedish-German-Danish joint venture. The costs for the link’s construction, covered by a 4billion Euro loan from the Danish and Swedish states to Øresundskonsortiet, are repaid from the tolls levied for crossing the bridge.

Cultural and Economic Benefits

Since 2000, the Oresund bridge has successfully connected Sweden and Denmark. Its economic and cultural benefits are many. The bridge has benefited both Sweden and Denmark. While the fortunes of Denmark’s capital Copenhagen grow along with great numbers of Swedish commuters over the 16km bridge, benefits for the city of Malmöin Sweden are slightly less.

Opened up the job market

In the quarter of a century since it opened on 1 July 2000, the bridge (known as Øresundsbroen or Öresundsbron depending on whether you are on the Danish or Swedish side of the strait) has not only opened up Copenhagen’s vast job market to largely rural southern Sweden, but changed the prospects of those who use it. The 15.9km (9.9 miles) rail and road link between Copenhagen and Malmö (which includes an 8km bridge, 4km tunnel, and 4km artificial island) has also transformed this region.

Living in Sweden but working in Denmark

Many live in Sweden and work in Denmark, because the labour shortage is increasing in Denmark, and the Swedish krona makes it profitable to work in Denmark and live and shop in Sweden. While it was not impossible to commute before the bridge, as the commute was via boats, it was very time-consuming. In 1999, the year before the bridge opened, a total of only 2,788 people commuted.

The bridge was closed only twice

Users of the bridge don’t feel like they are crossing an international border. The bridge was only closed two times in the last 25 years: it was closed in 2015 during the refugee crisis and in 2020, during the pandemic, when the bridge was again closed.

International status for Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen has soared to international super status, becoming a must-see tourist destination, global fashion and design leader, host to the biggest airport in the Nordics, as well as being home to the maker of the wonder drug (for weight loss and diabetes), Ozempic, Novo Nordisk. The weak Swedish krona attracts Swedish workers, bringing in 2bn DKK (£230m) a year in tax revenues. Last year, 105,000 daily journeys were made by car, train, or boat over the strait, but most commuter traffic is travelling towards Denmark. Of the 21,585 people who commuted regularly across the bridge to work in the final quarter of last year, 96% were people who live in Sweden, according to the Øresund Institute, an independent Swedish-Danish knowledge centre. By 2030, Greater Copenhagen, run by representatives of each of the included Swedish and Danish regions, aims to increase the total to 30,000.