The King cut a red ribbon at a ceremony marking progress at the Femern Tunnel, which is being constructed after excavation was completed earlier this year.

The ceremony took place at the harbour at Rødby on the Danish side of the tunnel, broadcaster DR reported.

The element inaugurated on Monday comprises the first 217 metres of the tunnel and will be sunk later this year.

That represents a significant milestone according to Morten Kramer Nielsen, head of communication at the Femern A/S company which is directing the project.

“We are incredibly glad he [the King, ed.] is here. It’s the culmination of 3-4years’ work and we are marking it with the King,” he said.

It took three years to excavate the tunnel before the construction phase began, the company said in April.

“This is by far the largest excavation in Denmark’s history, and it has been a difficult task,” Pedro da Silva Jørgensen, the project’s Technical Deputy Director said at the time.

The subsoil between Denmark and Germany is a complex mixture of different soil types, with the excavators meeting huge blocks of granite left over from the Ice Age, the largest of which weighed 70 tons. 

“This has given rise to some exciting challenges along the way, which we have managed to solve in collaboration with our contractors. That is why we are happy and proud that we have now reached the goal,” Jørgensen said. 

The tunnel is 18 kilometers long, and 15 million cubic meters of sand, stone and earth have been excavated from the seabed, creating approximately 300 hectares of new land off the coast at Rødbyhavn, which will in the long term become beaches and hiking trails.