Editing Great Belt Bridge (section)

== History ==
{{See also|Great Belt#International waterway}}
The [[Great Belt ferries]] entered service between the coastal towns of [[Korsør]] and [[Nyborg]] in 1883, connecting the railway lines on either side of the Belt. In 1957, road traffic was moved to the Halsskov–Knudshoved route, about 1.5 kilometres to the north and close to the fixed link.

Construction drafts for a fixed link were presented as early as the 1850s, with several suggestions appearing in the following decades. The [[Danish State Railways]], responsible for the ferry service, presented plans for a bridge in 1934. The concepts of bridges over Øresund (152 million DKK) and Storebælt (257 million DKK) were calculated around 1936.<ref>Marstrand, Wilhelm. "[http://www.e-pages.dk/ingarkiv/4807/html5/?page=17 Det store vej- og broprojekt]" ''[[Ingeniøren]]'', 14 March 1936. Accessed: 2 December 2014.</ref> In 1948, the Ministry for Public Works (now the [[Danish Ministry of Transport|Ministry of Transport]]) established a commission to investigate the implications of a fixed link.<ref name="planer">{{cite web |last=Hellesen |first=Jette Kjærulff |author2=Ole Tuxen |title=Planer om fast forbindelse |url=http://www.korsoer-historie.dk/planeromfastforbindelse/ |work=Korsør i 15.000 år |publisher=[[Korsør Municipality]] |language=da |access-date=2009-06-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704062513/http://www.korsoer-historie.dk/planeromfastforbindelse/ |archive-date=4 July 2009}}</ref>

The first law concerning a fixed link was enacted in 1973,<ref>{{cite web |last=Hellesen |first=Jette Kjærulff |author2=Ole Tuxen |title=Korsør og Storebæltsforbindelsen 1973–95 |url=http://www.korsoer-historie.dk/korsrogstorebltsforbindelsen/ |work=Korsør i 15.000 år |publisher=[[Korsør Municipality]] |language=da |access-date=2009-06-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704062448/http://www.korsoer-historie.dk/korsrogstorebltsforbindelsen/ |archive-date=4 July 2009}}</ref> but the project was put on hold in 1978 as the [[Venstre (Denmark)|Venstre]] (Liberal) party demanded postponing public spending. Political agreement to restart work was reached in 1986, with a construction law ({{langx|da|anlægslov}}) being passed in 1987.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hellesen |first=Jette Kjærulff |author2=Ole Tuxen |title=Den faste forbindelse |url=http://www.korsoer-historie.dk/denfasteforbindelse/ |work=Korsør i 15.000 år |publisher=[[Korsør Municipality]] |language=da |access-date=2009-06-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704064717/http://www.korsoer-historie.dk/denfasteforbindelse/ |archive-date=4 July 2009}}</ref>

The design was carried out by the engineering firms [[COWI A/S|COWI]] and [[Ramboll]] together with [[Dissing+Weitling]] [[Architectural firm|architecture practice]].

Construction of the link commenced in 1988. In 1991, Finland sued Denmark at the [[International Court of Justice]], on the grounds that Finnish-built mobile offshore drilling units would be unable to pass beneath the bridge.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.icj-cij.org:443/case/86|title=Passage through the Great Belt (Finland v. Denmark)|website=www.icj-cij.org}}</ref> The two countries negotiated a financial compensation of 90 million [[Danish krone]]r, and Finland withdrew the lawsuit in 1992.<ref>{{Citation
 | last = Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Finland)
 | author-link = Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Finland)
 | contribution = Kirjallinen kysymys: Suomen valtion Juutinrauman siltahankkeesta saamista korvauksista
 | title = KK 94/1994 vp {{in lang|fi|sv}}
 | publisher = [[Parliament of Finland]]
 | date = 1994-03-24
 | contribution-url = http://www.eduskunta.fi/triphome/bin/akxhref2.sh?{KEY}=KK+94/1994 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2022}}</ref>

A [[European Court of Justice]] ruling in 1993 found that a contractual condition requiring use of local labour and local materials in constructing the bridge was incompatible with the principles of the [[EEC Treaty]].<ref>Heard, E., [https://www.bevanbrittan.com/insights/articles/2016/evaluation-and-the-audit-trail/ Evaluation and the audit trail], ''Bevan Brittan'', published 8 June 2016, accessed 31 December 2023</ref>

The link is estimated to have created a value of 379 billion DKK after 50 years of use.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://ing.dk/sites/ing/files/samfundsoekonomisk_analyse_af_storebaeltsforbindelsen.pdf| title = Economic analysis| access-date = 22 February 2015| archive-date = 22 February 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150222103336/http://ing.dk/sites/ing/files/samfundsoekonomisk_analyse_af_storebaeltsforbindelsen.pdf| url-status = dead}}</ref>

In 2022, the bridge was crossed as part of the route of [[2022 Tour de France, Stage 1 to Stage 11#Stage 2|Stage 2]] of the [[2022 Tour de France]].