Minimizing environmental impacts of a major construction: the Øresund link

The Øresund Link is a 4-lane motorway with a 2-line rail link between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Malmö, Sweden, built across the Øresund Sound between the 2 countries. The environmental concerns associated with construction of the Link were that that it might affect the water and salt flow through the Sound and into and out of the Baltic Sea, lead to destruction of the cod fishery, and affect other biological systems. An International Expert Panel was formed to design mitigation strategies to avoid negative environmental impacts. The Panel designed stringent environmental controls for the construction, of which the most significant was to limit sediment discharges to 5% of the dredged material. This was one-fifth of the discharge limit construction companies usually accept as normal for such a large-scale project. An environmental monitoring program was instituted to monitor compliance with the environmental control measures. As a result of the imposition of tough environmental requirements, the Link was built with little environmental impact and 3 y after it was completed, environmental conditions have returned to normal.