Aerial Photo of Oresund Bridge.

Satellite image of the Oresund Bridge.

View from Malmö

View from Öresund

Name

In Sweden and Denmark the bridge is most often referred to as Öresundsbron or Øresundsbroen, respectively. The bridge company itself insists on Øresundsbron, a compromise between the two languages which would symbolise a common cultural identity of the region, the people becoming 'Oresund citizens' once the bridge was established. Since it is actually a bridge and a tunnel, it is sometimes more technically correctly named the Oresund Link or Oresund Connection (Danish: Øresundsforbindelsen, Swedish: Öresundsförbindelsen). The Sound Bridge is occasionally heard, using the traditional English name of the strait.

History

Construction began in 1995. The last section was constructed on August 14, 1999. Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden met midway to celebrate its completion. The official inauguration took place on July 1, 2000, with Queen Margrethe II, and King Carl XVI Gustaf, presiding. The bridge was opened for traffic later that day. Before the inauguration 79,871 runners competed in a half marathon (Broloppet, the Bridge Run) from Amager (in Denmark) to Skåne (in Sweden) on June 12, 2000. The bridge was finished 3 months ahead of schedule.

Initially the usage of the bridge was not as high as expected, which was generally attributed to the expense of crossing. 2005 and 2006, however, have seen a rapid increase in the volume of traffic on the bridge. This phenomenon may be due to Danes buying homes in Sweden and commuting to work in Denmark, because the price of housing in Malmö is lower than in Copenhagen. As of 2008 a single car ride across the bridge costs DKK 260, SEK 325 or EUR 36 (however, discounts of up to 75% are available for regular users). In 2007 almost 25 million people travelled over the bridge, 15.2 million in cars and buses and 9.6 million by train.

Features

The bridge has one of the longest cable-stayed main spans in the world at . The height of the highest pillar is . The total length of the bridge is , which is approximately half the distance between the Swedish and Danish landmasses, and its weight is 82,000 metric tons. On the bridge, the two rail-tracks are beneath the four road lanes. The bridge has a vertical clearance of , although most boat traffic across Oresund still passes over the Drogden strait (where the tunnel lies). The bridge was designed by Arup.

Peberholm, artificial island

The bridge ends in the middle of Øresund, on an artificially built island, called Peberholm. The island is more than 4 km long and a few hundred metres wide, belongs to Denmark and is now an unpopulated natural reserve.

The Drogden Tunnel

The connection between Peberholm and the nearest populated part of Denmark is through a tunnel, called Drogdentunnelen (the Drogden Tunnel). The tunnel is long, a 3,510 metre long buried undersea tunnel plus two 270-metre gate-tunnels. The reason to build a tunnel here instead of another bridge is that it is too near the Copenhagen Airport.

Rail transport

The public transport by rail is operated jointly by the Swedish SJ and Skåne commuter rail and the Danish Danske Statsbaner. A series of new dual-voltage trains were developed which link the Copenhagen area with Malmö and Southern Sweden as far as Gothenburg and Kalmar on selected departures. The bridge is also served by X2000 trains from Stockholm. Copenhagen Airport at Kastrup is served by its own train station close to the western bridgehead. Across the bridge trains run every 20 minutes, and once an hour during the night.

The rail section is double track standard gauge (1435 mm) and capable of high-speeds exceeding 200 km/h. There were challenges related to the difference in electrification and signalling between the Danish and Swedish railway networks. The solution chosen is to switch electrical system, from Swedish 15 kV, 16,7 Hz to Danish 25 kV, 50 Hz AC right before the eastern bridgehead (at Lernacken in Sweden). The line is signalled with the standard Swedish system all across the bridge. On Peberholm, the line switches to Danish signalling which continues into the tunnel. Sweden runs railways with left-hand traffic and Denmark with right-hand traffic. The switch is made at the Malmö railway station, which is a terminus station. For the new Malmö City Tunnel connection a bridge will pass one track to the other side.

Costs

The cost for the entire Øresund connection construction, including motorway and railway connections on land, was calculated to DKK 30.1 billion according to the 2000 year price index. The cost of the bridge is expected to be paid back by 2035. Sweden has started spending SEK 9.45 billion more, on the Malmö City Tunnel (2006-2012) as a new rail connection to the bridge.

Toll charge

As of January 2008, the toll for driving the fixed link is as follows (one way trip):

<gallery> Image:Öresundsbrons vajrar 1.jpg|On the bridge Image:Öresundstunneln till Danmark.jpg|In the tunnel Image:Öresund bridge.JPG|Under the bridge Image:Oresund-over-2008.JPG|View from above </gallery>

References

See also

• Oresund Region
• Great Belt Fixed Link
• Fehmarn Belt bridge

External links

• Oresund Bridge - Official website
• Øresund Bridge from Skanska site
• German/English - information+online booking
• Traffic on the Øresundbridge in recent years - Comparison chart.
• Live traffic flow on the bridge (java).

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