Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link-Constructing the World's Longest Immersed Tunnel

Event Description

At 18km long, the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link between Denmark and Germany will be the world's longest immersed tube tunnel. It is being constructed to provide a new road and high-speed rail link, cutting travel time and supporting Europe’s sustainable transport network for the future.

This presentation will be delivered jointly by Femern Link Contractors (FLC), the Joint Venture responsible for the design and construction and WSP, the third-party checker for structural and geotechnical works.

Hans Mortier (FLC) will provide an overview of the project and describe the construction and immersion processes which are currently underway. Sections of the reinforced concrete tunnel are currently being produced in a purpose-built production facility which covers an area of about 1 million square meters. From here they will be floated into position, immersed, and connected together to form the completed tunnel.

Graham Webb (WSP) will then describe some of the design checking activities undertaken by WSP. In order to successfully deliver the large number of required design checks within the project’s timescales, much of the process has been automated, including creation of structural analysis models, generation of resistance calculations, and checking of reinforcement drawings. Benefits and challenges of this approach will be discussed.

Note: before the technical talk there will be our Regional Group AGM and student prize

Speakers

Dr Graham Webb, Associate Director, WSP

Graham is a chartered civil engineer with 13 years’ experience in the infrastructure sector. He has been involved with the design and assessment of a variety of high profile and technically complex structures and has championed the use of scripting and automation to increase efficiency and enable challenging schemes to be delivered to programme. He is currently leading the Global Design and Special Element packages for the independent check of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel, comprising 18km of immersed tube tunnel between Denmark and Germany. Prior to joining WSP Graham completed a PhD on “Structural Health Monitoring of Bridges” at the University of Cambridge. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems are becoming increasingly popular due to their perceived ability to provide infrastructure managers with data to supplement their inspection regimes. He has developed an innovative new classification system to aid users of SHM systems to clearly understand how data is used and what information can realistically be obtained.

Hans Mortier,Technical Expert & Design Integration Manager

CEng Hans Mortier’s career spans 33 years wherein he moved rapidly from design engineer to discipline lead and subsequently design manager of large infrastructural projects. Apart from being department manager at DEME Infra, he managed and still manages the design for numerous design and build projects such as bored tunnels, cable stayed bridges, balanced cantilever bridges, top-down diaphragm wall tunnels in urban environment and immersed tunnels. The latter being Oude Maas, Dordstche Kil, 2nd Coentunnel, Maasdeltatunnel, Antwerp ring road Scheldt tunnel and Fehmarnbelt tunnel. Hans is lecturing the course tunnelling at the Leuven University for several years and is active as promoter for several PhD and MSc candidates. Hans is also member of the organizing committee of the World Tunnel Congress 2027 in Antwerp.

Additional Attendee Information

TEAMS Meeting Link

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZmUxMjYzY2UtM2M2Ny00ODk0LWExOWQtYzY0NjVjMzc0OTk0%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%220ebee1ac-d7d1-4f8b-853d-eae893eb08c6%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%229934e43b-83b4-4dcc-bede-501781732658%22%7d

Meeting ID:

365 891 770 635

Passcode:

ca8vEg

Host or Publisher IStructE - Midlands Counties