Bulgaria to get Europe’s longest road tunnel

The longest road tunnel in Europe will be built along the new 65 kilometre stretch of the Struma highway in Bulgaria. Two tunnels, totalling almost 37 kilometres, will be built underneath the Kresna gorge between the towns of Blagoevgrad and Sandanski. The 150 kilometre Struma highway runs from the village of Daskalovo to the Greek border and is part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor IV and the Trans-European North-South Highway. The tunnels are required for environmental reasons and will be
March 13, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
The longest road tunnel in Europe will be built along the new 65 kilometre stretch of the Struma highway in Bulgaria.  Two tunnels, totalling almost 37 kilometres, will be built underneath the Kresna gorge between the towns of Blagoevgrad and Sandanski.  

The 150 kilometre Struma highway runs from the village of Daskalovo to the Greek border and is part of the Pan-European Transport Corridor IV and the Trans-European North-South Highway.

The tunnels are required for environmental reasons and will be dug 30 metres underground. The projected cost is US$1.3 billion.

“This is the longest tunnel facility in Europe and the second longest in the world,” said minister of Regional Development Desislava Terzieva.  She also said that tenders for the construction will be issued by the middle of this year and will continue through 2014, and the Struma highway will be toll free.   

The project also includes three helipads suitable for emergency evacuation, a control centre for servicing the two tunnels and the highway with winter maintenance equipment, ambulances, fire apparatus and surveillance cameras.
Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision Urban Traffic Control

Related Content

  • State firms partner to build Indonesia toll road project
    October 4, 2013
    As many as nineteen state-owned enterprises have agreed to join forces to construct a toll road that will connect Java’s two biggest cities, with a major section of the highway expected to be built offshore. The Jakarta-Surabaya toll road is slated to span 775 kilometres, and will cost around US$13 billion, according to M. Choliq, the president director of construction firm Waskita Karya, one of the companies participating in the project.
    Read More
  • Thales builds on Canadian connection for transit R&D
    June 20, 2016
    The Canadian province of Ontario is continuing to benefit from its ongoing investment in transit R&D. David Crawford looks at the impact of new investment. Developing the next generation of urban rail signalling solutions worldwide, with the emphasis on transit security and efficiency, is the goal of a recently-created business partnership between the government of the Canadian province of Ontario and Thales Canada. The wholly-owned subsidiary of the France-HQ'd global defence, aerospace and transportation
    Read More
  • Caltrans to focus on traffic management in 2014
    February 21, 2014
    Although San Diego County may see a downturn new freeway infrastructure projects during 2014, many projects, from rail to highways and cycle paths, are still in the pipeline for 2014, according to the region's transportation planning agencies. Laurie Berman, district director for the regional office of the California Department of Transportation, said last week that Caltrans' focus is transitioning from general purpose lane expansions to more traffic management. The new direction is meant to provide trav
    Read More
  • Preparing for unpredictable precipitation
    August 18, 2015
    ITS solutions are helping streamline winter road maintenance for Delaware and Illinois, two states that must deal with dynamic weather and varying snowfall totals. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. Wilmington and Newark (pronounced new-ark) are two vastly different cities that sit on opposite ends of Delaware. Newark is a sleepy university town of roughly 30,000 residents abutting the state’s western border with Maryland and Pennsylvania, and often gets confused with its larger namesake in New Jersey.
    Read More

Highlighted Content