1850s, with several suggestions appearing in the following decades. The Danish State Railways, responsible for the ferry service, presented plans for a bridge in 1934. The concepts of bridges over Øresund (152 million DKK) and Storebælt (257 million DKK) were calculated around 1936. In 1948, the Ministry for Public Works (now the Ministry of Transport) established a commission to investigate the implications of a fixed link. The first law concerning a fixed link was enacted in 1973, but the project was put on hold in 1978 as the Venstre (Liberal) party demanded postponing public spending. Political agreement to restart work was reached in 1986, with a construction law () being passed in 1987. The design was carried out by the engineering firms COWI and Ramboll together with Dissing+Weitling architecture practice. Construction of the link commenced in 1988. In 1991, Finland sued Denmark at the International Court of Justice, on the grounds that Finnish-built mobile offshore drilling units would be unable to pass beneath the bridge. The two countries negotiated a financial compensation of 90 million Danish kroner, and Finland withdrew the lawsuit in 1992. The link is estimated to have created a value of 379 billion DKK after 50 years of use. In 2022, the bridge was crossed as part of the route of Stage 2 of the 2022 Tour de France. Construction The construction of the fixed link became the biggest building project in the history of Denmark. In order to connect Halsskov on Zealand with Knudshoved on Funen, to its west, a two-track railway and a four-lane motorway had to be built, via the small island of Sprogø in the middle of the Great Belt. The project comprised three different tasks: the East Bridge for road transport, the East Tunnel for rail transport and the West Bridge for road and rail transport combined. The construction work was carried out by Sundlink Contractors, a consortium of Skanska, Hochtief, Højgaard & Schultz (which built the West Bridge) and Monberg & Thorsen (which built the section under the Great Belt). The work of lifting and placing the elements was carried out by Ballast Nedam using a floating crane. East Bridge Built between 1991 and 1998 at a cost of US$950 million, the East Bridge (Østbroen) is a suspension bridge between Halsskov and Sprogø. It is long with a free span of ,. The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge was opened two months earlier. The