Workers at Limfjord motorway project ask public to stop filming

Workers building the third Limfjord connection are being photographed by spectators, leaving some feeling monitored and harassed, DR reports.

The Danish Road Directorate has put up a sign on the coast west of Aalborg asking people not to photograph or film staff at the site, citing their working conditions and privacy.

Contractor Munck Havne and Anlæg is building a causeway to Egholm island as part of the motorway project, which will cross the island and the Limfjord. The Road Directorate is also constructing a temporary causeway across the Limfjord south of Egholm.

Several employees have been confronted by spectators who photographed them, according to the Road Directorate. Project manager Mette Bentzen said some advisers and contractors had felt monitored and had found photographs of themselves on Facebook pages.

She declined an interview but wrote in a statement to DR that people who want to photograph or film surveys and work in the field should consider whether anyone might feel disturbed by it.

Reidar Kogstad, chairman of the construction group within the 3F Aalborg trade union, called the situation distressing. Workers on the construction site should be treated with respect and are not part of the political debate, he said.

Kogstad said the Road Directorate and the contractor had a responsibility to ensure that employees were not harassed at work. He welcomed the sign and said people opposed to the motorway should direct their anger at the politicians who approved it, not at workers doing their jobs.

Else Marie Tolbøll, chairwoman of the Citizens’ Movement Against a Motorway on the Egholm Route, also condemned the photographing of employees. If opponents of the third Limfjord connection were behind the incidents, they were taking the wrong approach, she said.

The citizens’ movement is challenging the motorway project through the courts. It has filed a case seeking to have the construction law declared invalid, Tolbøll said.

Bentzen said the sign had already had an effect. The contractor had seen more consideration from the public, and employees felt less monitored and disturbed, she wrote.

She urged people with questions or comments about the construction work to contact the Road Directorate.