Overview
- The project owner said the first of 89 concrete elements now rests on the seabed and is connected to the Danish portal after a multi‑day operation.
- The specialist ship IVY and five tugs moved the 217‑metre‑long, 42‑metre‑wide element to the trench, and the controlled lowering took about 14 hours.
- Engineers set the unit onto a leveled gravel bed with only millimetres of tolerance, then began backfilling with stone to lock it in place.
- Each watertight element holds two road tubes and two rail tubes plus a service passage, and temporary water chambers keep the element level because the road tubes are heavier.
- Placing elements has started even as the target opening slips past the original 2029 plan, with recent reports pointing to roughly a two‑year delay and separate German connecting works running later.