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The
Oresund Bridge (Danish Øresundsbroen, Swedish Öresundsbron, joint
hybrid name Øresundsbron) is a combined two-track rail and four-lane
road bridge across the Oresund strait. The bridge-tunnel is the longest
combined road and rail bridge in Europe and connects the two
metropolitan areas of the Oresund Region: the Danish capital of
Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö. The international European
route E20 runs across the bridge, as does the Oresund Railway Line.
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In
1991 the Denmark and Swedish governments agreed to build a bridge to
connect the two countries across Oresund. Later that year the two
parliaments ratified the agreement and scheduled the design to be
completed by 1994. The 16 km long Oresund link between Sweden and
Denmark is now complete. At 6 am on August 14, 1999 the final section of
the Oresund bridge was placed in position by the floating crane,
"Svanen". Six hours later, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Crown
Prince Frederik of Denmark met on the bridge to mark the fact that
Denmark and Sweden are linked once more - 7,000 years after the Ice
Age when they were landlocked. The project opened to traffic during
the summer of 2000.
The
Oresund Bridge is the world's longest single bridge carrying both road
and railway traffic. In the design full advantage was taken of
repetition by composing the major part of the bridge of identical
spans. The high bridge with its record-breaking cable-stayed span of
490m is designed to harmonize both structurally and aesthetically with
the approach bridges. In the construction phase the on-site
activities were completed in just 2 1/2 years due to an extensive use
of prefabrication and erection of large units.