AFRY wins DKK 70 million assignment for the Danish Road Directorate on major infrastructure project in Copenhagen

Nordhavn Tunnel is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Copenhagen in decades. The project entails the construction of a 1,4 km tunnel across Svanemølle Bay and the construction of a replacement harbour.

The tunnel project is carried out to support urban development in Nordhavn in the future but also to reduce the number of heavy goods vehicles in the inner city of Copenhagen.

The Danish Road Directorate is responsible for the construction of Nordhavn Tunnel in Copenhagen, and it is built on behalf of Copenhagen Municipality.

Once finished, the tunnel connects the two city areas, Østerbro and Nordhavn, and connects with the existing Nordhavnsvej Tunnel, a 600 m long tunnel with its own SCADA system.

“We are very proud to have won the assignment and to be able to provide both Copenhagen Municipality and the Danish Road Directorate with our expertise and knowledge within advanced control systems. We are very much looking forward to partner with them again,” says Kasper B. Nielsen, Market Area Manager for Advanced Automation in AFRY in Denmark.

AFRY has worked with the Danish Road Directorate on various assignments since the 1990’s.

A technically challenging task requires expert knowledge
Because the task of implementing and extending the SCADA system is a technically challenging task, the Danish Road Directorate chose to separate the control system from the actual construction project and find an expert in control systems for tunnels.

”It is important that we learn from the lessons made by Copenhagen Municipality when they constructed Nordhavnsvej Tunnel. Our focus is to have a fully integrated system that works from day one between the two road stretches. It’s a technically challenging task, and then there is the added difficulty that it has to connect with the existing SCADA system in Nordhavnsvej Tunnel. We are therefore very pleased to award the assignment to AFRY,” says Silas Nørager, Project Manager at the Danish Road Directorate and responsible for the control system in Nordhavn Tunnel.

A SCADA system is a type of control system designed to collect, analyze, and visualize data. The system is implemented and used to provide staff with information about incidents, technical errors and when to implement safety precautions.

According to plan, Nordhavn Tunnel is ready for traffic in 2027 with an expected capacity of 8,200 vehicles per day.