Bosnia’s national road agency Autoceste FBiHIt reports contractor has broken through the left tube of the twin-tube Vranduk Tunnel in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Work on the right tube started in March last year and in November, the contractors broke through, noting at the time that they had 108m to go on the left tube.
The 380m-long twin-tube tunnel is being built using the new Austrian tunnel method by Azerbaijan's Azvirt and Hering dd Siroki Brijeg contractors, base in Bosnia. DRI Investment Management is supervising the work, which is part of the larger Vranduk - Ponirak road project.
The contract for work on the Vranduk – Ponirak secton was signed in May 219 for a construction period of 24 months, at a cost or around €76.6 million.
The highway is part of the European Corridor 5c, or Corridor Vc, motorway route. The 700km-long European transport Corridor 5c connects the Adriatic port of Ploce in Croatia with Budapest in Hungary via Bosnia which has around 340km of the route.
Last June, Autoceste FBiH said it had secured more funds - €869.2 million (US$1.05 billion) - for continued construction of the Corridor 5c motorway project. The agency reported that 92km of Corridor 5C had been completed. But some environmentalist and local citizen groups have complained of rerouting the corridor without considering dislocation of families and disruption to ecosystems.
In November, construction started on the Banja Luka-Prijedor highway, the first land transport infrastructure project developed by Chinese companies in Europe on a concession basis.
The 40km highway in Republika Srpska, a constituent part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is costing around €300 million (US$46.7 million). It will run from the administrative city of Banja Luka – the largest city with a population of over 200,000 – northeast to Prejidor, with a population of around 90,000.
