EU funds set for renovation of the Karawanks Tunnel

The 2465 European Commission will provide €25 million for renovation of the 7.8k-long Karawanks Tunnel, a motorway link between Austria and Slovenia.

The Karawanks is a 120km-long mountain range between Slovenia to the south and Austria to the north.

Around €6.5 million will go towards planning and €18 million will be set aside for reconstruction.

Work will include a rescue route as well as updated fire protection facilities and communication system.

The renovation has a total budget of around €115 million, of which Austria will pay €65.3 million. Construction work will begin in 2018.

Construction of the motorway tunnel began in 1986 and it opened in 1991. It connects the Austrian Karawanken Autobahn A11 from Villach with the A2 motorway, leading across the border to the Slovenian cities of Kranj and Ljubljana.

The road tunnel – of which there is a parallel rail tunnel that opened in 1906 - is part of the transport 8111 axis Munich-Salzburg-Ljubljana-Thessaloniki, also called Pan-European Corridor-X.