A Strategic Model for a Complex Infrastructure in Northern Europe

As part of the processes that are forming and integrating a shared European identity, considerable importance attaches to projects whose aim is to create a network of major lines of communication, facilitating access between neighbouring areas and improving existing connections at the continental scale. This paper discusses the Øresundbron project, a complex structure linking Denmark and Sweden across the strait of Øresund, consisting of a bridge and tunnel with associated installations on either coast along with various consolidation, reclamation, and environmental upgrading works. A description of the technical and construction aspects of the project is followed by a discussion of the financial, socio-economic and procedural feasibility aspects, showing how the decisive strategy for successfully and sustainably implementing a project of this type is to take an integrated approach to design.