Lynetteholmen Island is a proposed development that will provide additional land at the mouth of the harbour with space for 35,000 new homes, with at least 20% earmarked as affordable rental housing for students and lower earners. The island would serve three purposes:

  • protecting the old city from storm floods by narrowing the entrance to the inner harbour and allowing flood gates to be fitted at the narrowest section
  • providing an area to deposit spoil from building sites and metro construction as the Nordhavn harbour fill site is almost full, and
  • providing new centrally-located sites to increase housing for Copenhagen’s ever increasing population while also keeping property prices down.

The project, which is expected to begin construction in 2022 with the perimeter piling, will require the development of new infrastructure to serve the area. This includes a new metro line, with three designs proposed:

  • an extension of the recently opened Line M4 from Nordhavn
  • a new M5 line serving the southern part of the city, and
  • a new M5 West line that, as well as serving Lynetteholmen, would make an almost complete circle around the city serving some areas not served by the existing network such as the National Hospital and the northern university campus.

The cheaper M4 extension has already been dropped as it would share tracks with the M3 and M4 lines through the city centre and would not provide the required capacity. It would also not increase capacity across the harbour to relieve the overcrowded M1 and M2 lines during peak periods.

The M5 West, although slightly more expensive than the M5 proposal, is favoured as it crosses the harbour twice, will attract twice as many daily passengers and will generate more revenue to compensate the increased cost.

The line, which will have 11 stations, is expected to cost DKr 20.4bn ($US 3.2bn) and will provide services for the 78,000 people who are expected to live, work and study within walking distance of the line by 2035.

In addition to the new metro line, a new eastern by-pass road will run through a tunnel from Nordhavn via Lynetteholmen and Refshaleøen along the east coast of Amager Island before joining the motorway network by the airport.

The preliminary study into the transport connections was published by Ministry for Traffic and Housing, working with the Copenhagen and Frederiksberg municipalities, Copenhagen metro operator Metroselskabet and the Danish Road Directorate. The study will provide the basis for the political approval of the project and a financial plan, which is expected later this year.

As the sale of building rights on Lynetteholmen will not cover the cost of the new infrastructure, the government is expected to contribute to the cost of the road bypass, which is expected to cost between DKr 20bn and 25bn.

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