Construction of the world's longest immersed tunnel has begun. The 18 km-long combined road and rail tunnel between Germany and Denmark will be 9 metres high and 43 metres wide and will promote trade and tourism in northern Europe. A factory is being built on the Danish side for the 200-metre-long precast concrete tunnel elements, which will be immersed to form the permanent link between Denmark's Lolland Falster region and the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
The project involved construction of a third and fourth railway track between Ghent and Bruges. Two major rail traffic flows converge here: on the one hand, the freight traffic that goes from the port of Zeebrugge past Bruges and Ghent-Sint-Pieters towards Merelbeke, and on the other hand the passenger traffic on the Ostend, Bruges-Ghent-Sint-Pieters and Brussels axes. On peak days, more than 300 trains a day run between the stations at Gent-Sint-Pieters and Bruges.
In the Rotterdam port area, the Havenspoorlijn (port railway line), the first part of the Betuweroute, will be constructed. The new route, the Theemswegtracé, will be completed in 2021 and will solve the problems at the Calandbrug near Rozenburg.