At last! Great relief on the way to Greece. Today afternoon, traffic will be opened through the longest tunnel in our country – “Zheleznitsa” on AM “Struma”. The facility is about 2 km long. Together with the sections before and after it, a 5 km highway is put into operation.
The tunnel has two separate tubes for movement. The length of each is about 2 km. The facility has all safety systems, energy efficient lighting, ventilation, video surveillance, fire alarm, intelligent traffic management system, emergency SOS booths, electronic access control system, etc. Between the pipes there are four pedestrian cross connections and two more for cars on which ambulances, fire brigades and other specialized machines will be able to pass. In the event of a road accident or closure of one of the tubes, they will be used to safely evacuate passengers. A service road was also built at the southern portal of the tunnel from the Simitli side, a helicopter pad, two bridges over Sukha Reka, a retaining wall, etc.
The tunnel was built according to a new Austrian method. About a meter and a half was dug into each pipe per day and immediately after that the primary lining of the facility was built with fasteners, shotcrete and anchors. During its construction, four icons of St. “Ivan Rilski”, as are the traditions in tunnel construction. Images of the saint are placed at the beginning and end of the two pipes of the facility. Currently, the holy images are not visible as they are covered during the construction of the secondary lining of the facility. The trust in the installation of the icons is that they protect the workers during the construction of the site, and then all travelers.
During the construction of the bridge facility over the Struma River in front of the “Railway”, for the first time in our country the technology of “step-by-step pushing” of the reinforced concrete structure was used. Its implementation facilitated the crossing of the section over 6 obstacles – the Struma River, the I-1 road Sofia – Kulata, the railway line Sofia – Kulata, the municipal road Blagoevgrad – Simitli and a service road to the northern portal, without imposing a restriction on the intensive traffic on the road E-79 during construction. The characteristic of this innovative technology is that a work platform is used to manufacture the individual elements, which are lifted and pushed forward with a hydraulic system, each element being installed in front of the finished one. The viaduct has two independent facilities for both directions of traffic. The canvas for the Tower is 510 m long, and for Sofia – 560 m. The height of the bridge is between 10 m and 18 m, and the distance between the columns is from 45 to 60 m.
AM “Struma” is the first infrastructural site on which a helipad was built. It is about 410 m from the southern portal of the tunnel, traveling from Blagoevgrad to the Tower, and 40 m from road I-1 (E-79). The facility will be accessible both from the first-class road, stopping at the junction for the village of Zheleznitsa, and from the new section of the highway. The site is made of asphalt concrete and measures 40 m by 40 m. It is located at 315 meters above sea level, and when determining its exact location, the wind speed in the area was taken into account – the so-called “wind rose” in meteorology. The facility has video surveillance and all the necessary security and communication systems, fire alarm, etc., which are part of the safety systems of the Railway Tunnel. The helipad will be able to take off and land medical helicopters up to 3,750 tons. The maximum weight of a medical air ambulance including equipment, fuel and crew is about 3,175 tonnes. The helipad will be able to be used by helicopters of state institutions – the Air Force for rescue operations in severe or mass accidents, by the mountain rescue service and others.
“Zheleznitsa” tunnel was built by the “AM STRUMA TUNNEL 2018” Consortium, in which: “GPI GROUP” AD, “GLOBAL CONSTRUCTION” OOD and “VIA PLAN” EOOD participate. The value of the contract is BGN 215,362,525.40 excluding VAT. Construction supervision is carried out by “Plan Invest Zheleznitsa” DZZD. The association includes: “PLAN INVEST PLOVDIV”, “INFRA PROJECT CONSULT” EOOD, “Askos 03” EOOD, “SEARCH CORPORATION SRL”. The value of the contract is BGN 3,994,440 excluding VAT.
The section before the tunnel, traveling from Sofia to the Tower, with a length of 720 m together with the service tunnel road at the northern portal and a bridge facility, was built by DZZD “Zheleznitsa – Sever”, which includes: “GBS Infrastructure Construction” AD, “Glavbolgarstroy” AD and “Glavbolgarstroy International” EAD. The value of the contract is BGN 29,985,345 excluding VAT. Construction supervision was carried out by DZZD “TES Consult”, which includes: “STROL 1000″ AD, TRI-ES” EOOD and “EXPERT DECISIONS” EOOD. Their contract is for BGN 599,783 excluding VAT.
The section after the tunnel is 1.4 km long and along its route an agricultural underpass, retaining and strengthening wall, drainage facilities, engineering networks were built and reconstructed, etc. The contractor is “PST GROUP” EAD. The value of the contract is BGN 26,968,888.02 excluding VAT, together with an additional agreement to strengthen the registered landslide. The construction supervision is carried out by the DZZD “ROAD CONSULT 2000-CONSULT 64”, which includes: “ROAD CONSULT 2000” EOOD and “CONSULT 64” OOD. Their contract is for BGN 645,291.00 without VAT, together with the additional agreement to strengthen the registered landslide.
The project is co-financed by the Cohesion Fund of the European Union and the national budget through OP “Transport and Transport Infrastructure” 2014-2020.
Struma Motorway is part of the Orient/Eastern Mediterranean corridor connecting Vidin with Kulata, and road traffic to Greece passes through it. The route is used as the shortest route between Western, Central Europe and the White Sea, and also as a connection between Europe and Asia.
#Great #relief #Greece
