Dutch marine contractor Boskalis says its three way partnership Fehmarn Belt Contractors has been awarded a $334 million contract associated to the development of the world’s longest automotive and railroad tunnel connecting Germany with Denmark and the remainder of Scandinavia beneath the Baltic Sea.

The contract was a part of a slew of contracts awarded Monday by Femern A/S, the Danish state-owned firm tasked with designing and planning the proposed Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link.

The Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link challenge will join Denmark and Germany and would be the world’s longest immersed street and rail tunnel with a size of greater than 11 miles (18 km). The scope of the contract for Boskalis, working with companion Van Oord, consists of the dredging of a tunnel trench within the seabed over a distance of 16 kilometers.

The dredged materials then be reused to create a brand new leisure nature reserve space on the Danish aspect of the Fehmarnbelt. The three way partnership may even assemble a brand new working harbor the place the tunnel contractors will assemble a tunnel fabrication yard the place the tunnel sections will likely be solid earlier than being floated out to sea for set up.

Femern on Monday awarded 4 main building contracts to the successful consortia totaling about $4.5 billion.

The challenge remains to be topic to sure environmental permits by German authorities. 

”We’re happy that, after quite a lot of years of preparation and a tendering course of, contracts have now been signed with the successful contractor consortia. As a consequence, our prime focus is now on acquiring German approval, which is a situation for getting building underway,” says CEO Claus F. Baunkjær, Femern A/S.

The dredging and reclamation consortia, named Fehmarn Belt Contractors (FBC), includes Boskalis International B.V. of the Netherlands, Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors B.V. of the Netherlands, HOCHTIEF Solutions AG from Germany, and Ed Züblin AG additionally from Germany.