2024-02-20 15:18:03
Traffic through the “Zheleznitsa” tunnel on the “Struma” highway will be opened tomorrow – Tuesday around 6 p.m.
Before that, there is the opening ceremony, which will be attended by the Speaker of the National Assembly Rosen Zhelyazkov, the Prime Minister Academician Nikolay Denkov, the Ministers of Regional Development and Public Works Andrey Tsekov and Ministers of Transport and Communications Georgi Gvozdeikov, Malina Kirova – Advisor, Economic management, in the Representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria, the district governor of Blagoevgrad District Maria Dimova, people’s representatives, mayors of municipalities from the district, representatives of the Road Infrastructure Agency, the contractor, construction supervision and others.
The “Railway” tunnel on the “Struma” AM is about 2 km long and is the longest road tunnel built so far in our country. 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. The images of the saint are placed at the beginning and at the 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 at the embedding of the icons is that they protect the workers in the construction of the site, and then all the travelers.
During the construction of the bridge facility over the Struma River before the “Railway”, for the first time in our country the technology of “step-by-step pushing” of the reinforced concrete structure was used. The application? facilitated the crossing of the section over 6 obstacles – the Struma river, road I-1 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 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 object 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 the I-1 road (E-79). To the facility it will be possible to reach 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 the exact ? location, the wind speed in the area is 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 “Zheleznitsa” 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 together with equipment, fuel and crew is about 3,175 tons. The helipad will also be able to be used by helicopters of state institutions – the Air Force for rescue operations in case of severe or mass accidents, by the mountain rescue service and others.