For decades, the Øresund Bridge has connected the Danes with their brothers and sisters in Sweden. But the How familiar are you with the bridge and the connection across the Øresund?

Denmark finally became landlocked with Sweden, and a heavy traffic of cars, trucks and not least the train connection has tied us Danes together since the opening. Here we bring you some impressive information about the Øresund link between Denmark and Sweden that you may not have known about.

How many cars do you think have crossed the Øresund Link? Figures from 2019 show that more than 114 million cars and other vehicles have crossed the bridge since it opened to public traffic this year 2000

1. Water: If you drive into the tunnel section of the bridge one day and notice a small amount of water entering the tunnel, don’t panic and alert the authorities. This is not a lack of maintenance or an incipient disaster. The tunnel is made of concrete elements that contract in cold environments while heat causes it to expand. There is a soft material between these elements to allow for movement, and this is where a little water can get in, but it’s not a sign of an impending disaster.
2. Drones: If you’re thinking about filming the road network on the Øresund Bridge with your new drone, you can forget it. It is not legal to make such recordings, partly because the bridge is very close to Copenhagen Airport, and special rules apply when filming close to an airport.
3. Speed control: There is a persistent rumor among drivers that there is no speed control in the tunnel section of the bridge link. It is true that there are no permanent speed checks, but the police can still carry out speed checks in the tunnel to catch speeders.
4. Øresund connection: If you think the idea of connecting Denmark to Sweden is a relatively new idea, think again. As early as 1936, there was actually a serious proposal to build an Øresund link. At the time, it was calculated that it would cost 152 million kroner to finance. In comparison, the current link was estimated to cost 30.1 billion kroner.
5. Peberholm: The construction of the Øresund Link required creativity on many fronts to complete the work. One of these creative elements included building an artificial island to make the work more favorable for the construction of the bridge. The result was the island of Peberholm.
6. Helsingør-Helsingborg: There were actually plans to build the Øresund link between Helsingør in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden. Among several counter-arguments to this solution, even though the distance between the two countries is shorter than where the Øresund Bridge is now, there was a fear that Copenhageners would not make the trip north as much as they would if the bridge was closer to them.
7. Renovation: In 2018, a light renovation of the Øresund Bridge began in the form of painting. It’s safe to assume that this will take some time to complete, and it is estimated that the project will not be finished until 2032, will cost 300 million Danish kroner and will cover 300,000 square meters of surface area.
8. Cross-border shopping: The new Øresund Bridge also created opportunities for Danes and Swedes to take advantage of neighboring countries. This could be anything from Danes buying cheap clothes in Sweden while Swedes went to Denmark to buy cheap alcohol. Similarly, Danes bought cheap cars in Sweden, but the rules were changed so that Danes could not buy cheap cars in Sweden while using them in Denmark.
9. TV series: In 2011, Danish and Swedish TV teamed up to create a drama series with the Øresund Bridge as the focal point of the story. The series was titled “Broen” in Danish and “Bron” in Swedish. The series inspired both French and English TV to make their versions, with the English Channel tunnel as the focal point. American and Mexican TV did the same, with their version of the series taking place on the border between the two countries.
10. Anniversary: For this reason, the Øresund Bridge is celebrating a great anniversary in the summer of 2020. On July 1 this year, it will be exactly 20 years since the bridge opened for traffic. If you were to measure its age based on when construction of the bridge link began, the bridge would be 25 years old this summer, as construction began in 1995.