The Oresund Bridge

The Oresund Bridge is a “structure” that connects the city of Malmo in Sweden with the city of Copenhagen in Denmark. I would like to refer to the Oresund Bridge as a structure because it is not a bridge neither a tunnel, the Oresund Bridge is both.
 




The Oresund Bridge is tall enough so sea traffic can go through

Sweden and Denmark were physically connected since the beginning of time but around the late 1990s the governments of both countries decided to change the way this countries were connected by building this structure to connect one of most vastly expanding economic areas in Europe.  The project begun in 1991 and it was done in 2000. After nine years of work and over 15 million euros invested in the project a group of civil engineers designed the longest and the most efficient combined road and rail bridge in Europe.

Image of the route of the bridge

The question is, why did they build it like that instead of just building a normal bridge? The engineers that were in charge of designing this project faced multiple problems. There was air traffic due to the Copenhagen Airport and also ship traffic going through the channel between Denmark and Sweden. They could have designed a taller bridge so ships could go underneath it but then it would be impossible for airplanes to land in the airport. So they designed a bridge that turns into a tunnel deep enough so that ships can go through. This design is a very innovative idea that revolutionized the way we see bridges today.

 

Unlike other engineering projects that go bad and end up costing a lot of money to the governments like the Central Artery/Tunnel Project in Boston, the Oresund Bridge didn’t present any problems through the construction process and the results are outstanding. The Oresund Bridge offers a 4-lane road carrying 6 million vehicles per year and more than 60,000 travelers per day, and two train tracks used by another 8 million people each year.

Connection between the bridge and the tunnel

The Oresund Bridge consists of 3,510 m undersea tube tunnel and 270 m entry tunnels at each end. A 4 km long tunnel with two rail tubes and two highway tubes on one level, an approximately 4 km long artificial island, linking the tunnel and the bridge, and a 7.8 km long, two-level bridge with the motorway on the upper level and the railway on the lower level. The entire project used 500,000 tons of concrete.

 

Unlike other structures similar to the Oresund Bridge like the Channel Tunnel that connects France and England (that I personally travelled in), the Oresund Bridge has an outstanding performance. Unlike the Channel Tunnel (the only possible way of transportation is by train), in the Oresund Bridge you have the freedom to decide whether you want to have more independency and travel in your own car rather than just riding the train. Unlike in the Oresund Bridge, I think that traveling in the Channel Bridge is more time consuming because it works just as an airport, you have to get early, and do the check in procedures. I think that the designing of the Oresund Bridge combines perfect the needs of the population because it gives you the freedom to decide how you want to travel.

Here is a link to a video that explaines everything I have talked about in this article. The problems engineers faced, and it also explains facts about the birdge like the way the strucutre was constructed and other interesintg facts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g71KpjG3Bu0

 

The Oresund Bridge

The Oresund Bridge is not just an engineering miracle but an economic push for the countries involved.  Ever since the project was done, Sweden and Denmark have experienced an economic growth because it opens more opportunities for people to work on different countries within Europe.

I don’t see any problems in the Oresund Bridge. If I have to rate the project I would give it a 10. 10 in design, 10 to the economic growth that generates the bridge itself and 10 to the fact that it has an amazing performance for such an aggressive design. This bridge has drawn a line separating past and future in the way we look at engineering structures. I hope that one day I have a chance to work on a similar project, where I can challenge my knowledge to break the barriers of structural design.