Gas pipeline rupture shuts down major Danish motorway for over two hours

A gas pipeline was severed by an excavator near Hedensted on Wednesday afternoon, forcing a full closure of the E45 motorway in both directions between Vejle and Aarhus and causing traffic chaos with queues up to 10 kilometres long, Danish broadcaster DR reports.

The rupture occurred at 16:05 during rush hour just south of Hedensted, near the Vejlefjord Bridge—one of Denmark’s busiest stretches, with around 100,000 vehicles passing daily. Some drivers attempted to turn around on the motorway to escape the gridlock.

The 40-centimetre-diameter steel pipeline, operating at 40 bar pressure, released gas with such force that nearby resident Martin Rødekilde Nielsen compared the sound to a jet engine at takeoff. “It was howling like crazy,” he told DR after returning home from work at 16:20 to find the leak roughly 300 metres from his house. Police arrived minutes later, ordering his family to stay indoors with windows and doors sealed while a patrol car blocked his driveway.

Lars Bønding, incident commander for Southeast Jutland Fire Services, confirmed the pipeline was struck during excavation work around 15:50. While initial reports suggested a possible fire, none occurred—though the risk was substantial. “If a spark had ignited the gas when the excavator hit the line, or if hot vehicle parts like brakes or exhausts had triggered it as gas spread across the motorway, the outcome could have been severe,” Bønding said. Authorities prioritised safety over traffic flow, he added, noting the “enormous” volume of gas released.

Power was cut to nearby homes, including Nielsen’s, at 17:20 as a precaution to prevent electrical transformers from igniting the gas. The leak was stopped when gas company Evida shut off the pipeline. The motorway reopened around 18:30, though repairs will require the line to be fully emptied of gas first.