A 5 km motorway section with a 2 km road tunnel is part of the “Struma” Motorway between Blagoevgrad and Simitli. The tunnel structure reinforces the landslide near the village of Zheleznitsa.
The project involves a huge number of construction and installation works, including 400 cast-in-place piles, embedded in rock, with depths of up to 32 m; reinforcing anchors with lengths of up to 34 m; we used about 3,500 tons of iron reinforcement and poured over 80,000 m3 of concrete. The purpose of the tunnel is to act as a counterforce that restrains and reinforces the landslide processes in the upper part of the mountain slope above this section of the highway.
The tunnel has a total length of 250 m. Its construction was necessitated by the need to ensure safe passage on the motorway due to landslide processes occurring in the immediate vicinity of its right lane.
The tunnel is equipped with modern safety systems, including fire alarm systems, lighting, and emergency lighting, which also indicates the distance to the nearest exits in case of evacuation. There is guide lighting installed in the pavement blocks, as well as traffic lights in accordance with regulatory requirements.
All safety and traffic control systems on the “Struma” Motorway will be monitored in a special Traffic Control Center, managed by the Road Infrastructure Agency and the Regional Road Administration in Blagoevgrad, which was also built by “Groma Hold”.
