January 3 (SeeNews) - Turkey's Cengiz expects to finish digging for the second tube of the Karavanke motorway tunnel in Slovenia in February, supervising engineer Milan Crepinsek said.
The breakthrough was initially planned for last September, but challenging terrain required the reconstruction of a 200-metre stretch, Crepinsek said in a video file posted on the website of public broadcaster RTV last week.
On the Austrian side of the tunnel, Asfinag, a government-owned company that manages the country’s highway system, reached the Slovenian border already two years ago, while excavating the Slovenian section has been more demanding due to geological complexities, Crepinsek noted.
Cengiz signed a contract with Slovenian state-owned motorway company DARS for the 120 million euro ($131 million) project at the end of January 2020. A month later, the European Investment Bank (EIB) said it was lending 90 million euro to cover project costs.
The construction of the second tube of the 3,546 metres-long tunnel which is a key road link between Slovenia and Austria started in August 2020.
($ = 0.91546 euro)