1967: The Great Belt Link – the world’s longest suspension bridge
Although, the bridge did not become a reality until the late 1990s, the idea of linking Zealand and Funen had been discussed in technical circles in Denmark for more than a hundred years. It is almost a law of nature that large bridge projects take time to be realised. Firstly, the design must be feasible, and the project must be supported both politically and by the public.
When the bridge first came to be designed, Rambøll & Hannemann was part of the joint venture that drew up the first design for the whole link in the 1970s, and later when the project was resumed in the 1980s, Rambøll & Hannemann designed the high-level bridge including Johan Hannemann’s signature round steel bars.
There was no doubt that the motivation for being part of the prestigious bridge project was beyond money. Johan Hannemann was of the belief that large iconic projects of this type were profitable regardless of whether or when they were realized:
“The drawing up of the competition proposal for a bridge across the Great Belt was a great experience for everyone who was part of this team, “supplementary training” in the development of ingenuity and constructive imagination”, he said.
The link was finally designed in the early 1990s and finished in 1998 and became the world’s longest suspension bridge. Ramboll was this time in joint venture with B. Højlund Rasmussen responsible for the bridge substructure. The record breaking bridge is 1624 meters long and is suspended 60 meters above the water and in just a very few years it became a natural part of the Danish infrastructure.