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Copenhagen (dpa) - After years of delay, construction work on the new Fehmarnbelt link will begin in Denmark.

At the start of the new year, work on the Danish side should start on Friday, as announced by the Danish Ministry of Transport.

A factory for the tunnel elements is to be built in Rødby, Denmark, and the tunnel portal in Lolland.

This is followed by the production of the elements and their placement under the seabed in the Fehmarnbelt.

The construction of a working port in Rødby had already started in 2020.

After 25 years of planning, the day has come when the many thousands of pages of analyzes and reports will finally become a construction site, the ministry said.

"One of the largest construction works in Danish history can now begin," said Transport Minister Benny Engelbrecht.

The tunnel is scheduled to go into operation in 2029.

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The groundbreaking ceremony in Rødbyhavn was originally planned for next Monday, but the event could not be held due to the Danish corona restrictions.

Instead, there was now a virtual event at which Engelbrecht symbolically broke ground.

Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer was also there online.

"This project is a huge opportunity for Europe," said the CSU politician in a video.

Schleswig-Holstein's transport minister, Bernd Buchholz, said that it was going to start on the Danish side, but not much later in Germany too.

The planned 18-kilometer tunnel from Fehmarn to the Danish island of Lolland in the Baltic Sea is particularly controversial in environmental policy in Schleswig-Holstein.

Among other things, two environmental associations and several ferry companies had opposed the plans.

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig had rejected the remaining lawsuits against the billion project at the beginning of November.

This means that building rights for the tunnel also exist on the German side.

On the Danish side, this has been in place since 2015.

From 2029, the fixed link across the Fehmarnbelt should shorten the travel time for cars, trucks and trains to Copenhagen.

A four-lane motorway and a double-track railway line are planned.

In the future, it will be one hour faster by car to get from Copenhagen to Hamburg, and by train up to two hours faster.

At the moment, depending on the traffic situation, it takes four and a half to five hours by car, and similarly long with the regular train service on the fastest connections.

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Communication Ministry of Transport (in Danish)

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