Denmark-Germany underwater tunnel

Danish plans to build another direct link to Germany moved forward with the approval by parliament of an underwater tunnel. The completed project hopes to connect Hamburg with Copenhagen in just three hours.
Lawmakers in Denmark approved amended plans for another road-and-rail link to Germany on Tuesday, opting for an underwater tunnel that they say would be safer and more environmentally friendly than the bridge they had planned originally.
Both countries agreed in 2008 to connect the northern German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland by building a road-and-rail bridge across the strait.
But the state-owned Danish firm Femern A/S presented lawmakers with modified plans for an 18-kilometer (11.6 mile) underwater tunnel. Seven out of eight parliamentary factions voted for the proposal, which kept the budget at around 5.1 billion euros ($7 billion).
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2014 and is to be completed in 2020.
German costs would be limited to connecting the tunnel with German infrastructure, estimated at between 800 million and 1.7 billion euros.

Source: Deutsche-Welle