Great Belt Bridge ready for future payment outages with new system

The Great Belt Bridge is now equipped to handle payment system failures without disrupting traffic, operator Sund & Bælt told Danish news agency Ritzau.

A new payment solution, tested after a major Nets outage last summer, has been fully implemented. The system, called “deferred authorization,” stores transactions during an outage and processes them once the connection is restored.

During a Nets outage on May 21, the bridge maintained full traffic flow for over five hours, with no queues reported. A minor group of customers experienced issues, prompting temporary barrier openings in select lanes to prevent congestion.

In June, the system was tested in all lanes without problems, Sund & Bælt confirmed. Going forward, barriers will be opened for card-paying drivers during peak season outages if traffic forecasts exceed 15-minute queues during the day.

Last summer’s outage caused significant delays in both directions, exacerbated by heavy holiday traffic and many foreign drivers.