The approval from the Danish Maritime Authority for the newly built special ships has taken time and only come now, according to the builder Sund & Bælt in a press release. This means that the lowering of the tunnel sections can begin in the spring, though the specific start date has not been announced. The 89 tunnel sections were originally supposed to start being transported out and lowered in the Fehmarn Belt in the summer of 2024, indicating a two-year delay in the ship approval process.
The reasons for this delay and its total cost impact on the tunnel project remain unclear. It is a giant puzzle, with over 200-meter-long tunnel elements that must be lowered and joined together with great precision on the bottom of the strait. The new connection is expected to almost halve the travel time from Malmö and Copenhagen to Hamburg.
The tunnel is set to open in about five years, but the exact opening date has not been confirmed, and it is unknown whether any further regulatory or technical hurdles remain before the sections can be lowered.