The Marselis Tunnel Project

The 1995 master plan for development of the commercial Port of Arhus suggests that the capacity of the port must be doubled within 25 years in order to remain being attractive for commercial cargo, ferry and freight traffic operators and to meet future demands from companies operating their business from the port. The expansion of the port began in 1998 and when the expansion is complete its capacity will significantly increase.

The development of the port leaves large parts of northernmost inner harbour areas closest to the City centre open for new attractive housing and business developments.

On-shore, the port has two main road corridors connecting it to the state motorway network of Denmark; a southern corridor - the Marselis Boulevard Corridor - connecting to the motorway south of the city and a northern corridor connecting to northern parts of Jutland. As the port is located in the very centre of the City, both corridors take the traffic to and from the port through densely populated residential and commercial areas and both corridors serve as main access roads for these purposes as well.

To accommodate for the increased needs for transportation of goods on the connecting roads to and from the port and to control air and noise pollution in central Arhus generated by the increased traffic volume, the City Council of Arhus has decided to build a traffic connection between the maj or roads and the harbour. The solution can be an approximately 2 km long, two-by-two lanes road tunnel below the existing Marselis Boulevard and widen the existing Ahavevej from two to four lanes i.e., increasing the traffic capacity of the southern corridor - the Marselis Tunnel Project. The decision reflects also, that the expansion of the port and the plans for the City-Near-Harbour-Areas will make the Marselis Boulevard Corridor the obvious future sole access road to and from the port.

The development of the port and the City-Near-Harbour-Areas has made it necessary to completely re-think the existing traffic structure of central Arhus in a new Traffic Plan 2020. The backbone of the new traffic plan will be an inner ring road corridor, which will include also the Marselis Boulevard and the Marselis Tunnel.

From early days, development of the City and development the Port have been closely integrated. Today, interaction between the City and the Port is as dynamic as ever. The Marselis Tunnel Projects as presented above will be an asset to the Port, to the City and to the entire Region.