History
The Great Belt ferries entered service between the coastal towns of Korsør and Nyborg in 1883, connecting the railway lines on either side of the Belt. In 1957, road traffic was moved to the Halsskov–Knudshoved route, about 1.5 kilometres to the north and close to the modern-day fixed link.
Construction drafts for a fixed link were presented as early as the 1850s, with several suggestions appearing in the following decades. The Danish State Railways, responsible for the ferry service, itself presented plans for a bridge in 1934. In 1948, the Ministry for Public Works (now the Ministry of Transport) established a commission to investigate the implications of a fixed link.
The first law concerning a fixed link was enacted in 1973, but the project was put on hold in 1978 as the Venstre (Liberal) party demanded postponing of various public spending. Political agreement to restart work was reached in 1986, with a construction law (Danish: anlægslov) being passed in 1987.
The design was eventually carried out by the architecture practice Dissing+Weitling together with the engineering firm COWI.
Construction of the Great Belt Fixed Link commenced in 1988. In 1991, Finland sued Denmark at the International Court of Justice, on the grounds that Finnish-built mobile offshore drilling units would have been unable to pass beneath the bridge. The two countries negotiated a financial compensation of 90 million Danish kroner, and Finland withdrew the lawsuit.
Read more about this topic: Great Belt Fixed Link
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