Karawanken tunnel (railway)

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Karawanken tunnel
Predor Karavanke
Karawanken tunnel
AustriaAustriaNorth portal (above) / south portal (below)SloveniaSlovenia
use Railway tunnel
traffic connection Rosentalbahn
place North portal: Sankt Jakob im Rosental South portal: JeseniceAustriaAustria
SloveniaSlovenia
length 7976 m
Number of tubes 1
Largest coverage 637 m
construction
completion September 30, 1906
business
operator AustriaAustria ÖBB / SŽSloveniaSlovenia
map
Relief map Slovenia Carinthia.jpg
location
Karawanken tunnel (railway) (Austria)
Red pog.svg
Red pog.svg
Coordinates
South portal 46 ° 26 ′ 57 "  N , 14 ° 0 ′ 56"  E
North portal 46 ° 31 '15 "  N , 14 ° 1' 33"  E

The Karawanken tunnel ( Slovenian Predor Karavanke ) is the longest railway tunnel on the Karawankenbahn . Despite its length, the daily load factor is manageable with an average of twelve passenger and thirty-five freight trains.

Geographical location

The tunnel leads about 637 m below the Karawanken ridge through the mountains. The state border between Austria and Slovenia is crossed in the tunnel . The north portal is about 800 m south of the Rosenbach train station, the south portal in the municipality of Jesenice (Aßling) in the village of Hrušica (Birnbaum).

Technical parameters

The tunnel is 7,976 m long, two-track and the line is electrified . The profile is slightly smaller than that of the Tauern tunnel to the north .

history

Locomotives of the electric tunnel railway during tunnel construction, 1904 (see: Local Railway Payerbach – Hirschwang , vehicles)

In 1901 the construction of the railway tunnel began. 4000 workers were involved in the project. Heavy weather made the construction very difficult. Methane gas often leaked out of the mountain and ignited. Mainly because of this, 50 workers died during the construction.

The costs for the construction amounted to around 36 million Austrian crowns , the equivalent of 200 million euros. The latest machines enabled an average advance of 4.5 meters per day. The excavated material has already been removed by electric locomotives .

As part of the construction work, its own power plant was built in Rosenbach, a district of St. Jakob im Rosental , in 1902 . It has been supplying the railway infrastructure with 50 Hz three-phase current since the tunnel was completed .

On September 30, 1906, a procession coming from Villach drove through the tunnel. This was opened on the same day with the Karawankenbahn .

Renovation and renovation 2020–2021

From August 10, 2020, an Austrian joint venture consisting of STRABAG SE and Dion IC - civil engineering for Austria and Slovenia will renovate the aging tunnel. In a bidding process, which was carried out under Austrian law, the latter won a bid of 73.1 million euros against seven other providers, namely the Austrian companies Swietelsky , Bahnbau Graz , ÖSTU-Stettin , Rhomberg Eisenbahnechnik and the Slovenian ones Providers SŽ-ŽGP , Tehnična komerciala and GH Holding . The selection process was deliberately not carried out according to Slovenian law, as it has been customary in Slovenia for years that Slovenian companies that apply for public tenders challenge them to the last instance if they do not receive them themselves. These challenges repeatedly delay projects in Slovenia for years. Most recently at the Karawanken motorway tunnel. From October 5, 2020 to April 4, 2021, the tunnel is to be completely closed and completed by the end of the year.

As early as 2015, the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology announced that the plan was to adapt the tunnel in terms of safety and to permanently dismantle it on a track. In addition to the age, the reason for this is the low level of use and the small profile, which, for example, does not allow two freight trains to enter the tunnel at the same time. Above all, the tunnel currently does not meet the requirements of European legislation. In 2017, a state treaty was therefore concluded between Austria and Slovenia.

An escape route can be built through the space gained and the tunnel as a whole brought up to the latest state of the art. This includes, among other things, that the overhead line by a conductor rail replaced, the drainage and in particular the tunnel floor is being renovated, and the tunnel arch by new anchors , reinforcement and shotcrete is renewed. Thanks to the renovation, the speed should increase from 50 to 120 kilometers per hour and make it RoLa- compatible. The portals from the imperial era are also to be renovated and shine in new splendor. Despite the future single-track operation, this should not be an obstacle in relation to the traffic volume.

In the long term, consideration is being given to building a second tube, just as with the road tunnel, so that there should be a tunnel with one track in each direction of travel. A specific study is therefore being prepared as of summer 2020, which should already determine the best position for a possible second tube. Above all, the geology is likely to play a major role here, as it is very unfavorable in the Slovenian area of ​​the current tunnel and caused many problems when the first tube was built. In historical construction documentation, for example, it was described how a drill rig was regularly crushed by yielding rock masses and had to be freed again and again. Mine gases and mountain water also caused massive problems. The same applied to the construction of the first road tunnel, which is located in the same geology and runs practically parallel to the railway tunnel. The current solution with a tunnel and a track should last until 2040, after which a second tube could be built.

The project has a total budget of 114.9 million euros . Divided over the length of the respective national territory, Slovenia bears 49.6 million euros, Austria 65.3 million euros. The project is financially supported by the European Union as part of the Connecting Europe Facility Program. Outside of the six-month closure, there will always be interruptions in the flow of traffic.

During the construction period, freight traffic will be diverted over a large area and passenger traffic will be driven through the motorway tunnel as rail replacement traffic with buses .

Rescue train

For tunnel safety, there is a separate rescue train in the Villach Süd marshalling yard , which is manned by the volunteer fire brigade and employees of the ÖBB in an emergency .

See also

literature

  • August Steinermayr:  The Karawanken Tunnel. In:  Allgemeine Bauzeitung , year 1906, (Volume LXXI), ZDB -ID 2147220-8 , pp. 95-98. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / abz.
  • Jos. Fischer: Funding for the construction of the Karawanken tunnel (north). In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung. News from the Reich and State Authorities . Published by the Ministry of Public Works. Volume 23/1906, XXVI. Vintage. Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1906, ZDB -ID 200914-6 , p. 149 ff. - full text online .
  • Victor von Röll : Karawanken tunnel . In: -: Encyclopedia of Railways . Volume 6 (Freight Transport - Crises). 2nd, completely revised edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Vienna 1914, p. 326 f. - Full text online .
  • 6326: Rehabilitation of the Karawanken tunnel will begin in 2020 . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International 11/2018, p. 583.

Web links

Commons : Karawankentunnel (railway)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://kaernten.orf.at/stories/3046452/
  2. ↑ Besedilo: Urša Peternel CATEGORY: Jesenice / petek, 29 Marec 2019 / 10:26 pm: Gorenjski glas | V predoru bo le še en tir. Retrieved April 1, 2019 .
  3. ↑ 6326: redevelopment .
  4. ↑ kaernten ORF at red: mega building project of the monarchy. May 12, 2020, accessed May 31, 2020 .
  5. ↑ The opening of the Karawankenbahn. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt (No. 15126/1906), October 1, 1906, p. 5, top center. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  6. ↑ Besedilo: Urša Peternel categorija: Jesenice / ponedeljek, July 27, 2020 / 3:01 pm: Gorenjski glas | Železniški predor bo obnovilo avstrijsko podjetje. Retrieved July 28, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Prenova železniškega predora Karavanke bo stekla avgusta. Retrieved July 21, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Železniški predor Karavanke bo nadgrajeval Strabag. Retrieved July 22, 2020 (Slovenian).
  9. ↑ Vsak dan prvi - 24ur.com. Retrieved July 22, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Slovenija in Avstrija v skupen razpis za železniški Predor Karavanke. Retrieved July 22, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Stöger signs agreement with Slovenia on the Karawanken railway tunnel. bmvit , March 20, 2015, accessed on November 19, 2015 .
  12. ↑ Besedilo: Urša Peternel CATEGORY: Jesenice / petek, 29 Marec 2019 / 10:26 pm: Gorenjski glas | V predoru bo le še en tir. Retrieved April 1, 2019 .
  13. ↑ 6326: redevelopment .
  14. ↑ Strabag closes and modernizes the Karawanken tunnel. July 23, 2020, accessed July 29, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Prenova železniškega predora Karavanke bo stekla avgusta. Retrieved July 21, 2020 .
  16. ↑ 6326: redevelopment .
  17. ↑ One year construction period: ÖBB are investing 110 million euros in the Karawanken railway tunnel . In: www.kleinezeitung.at . ( kleinezeitung.at [accessed October 31, 2018]).
  18. ↑ 6326: redevelopment .
  19. ↑ Besedilo: Urša Peternel CATEGORY: Jesenice / petek, 29 Marec 2019 / 10:26 pm: Gorenjski glas | V predoru bo le še en tir. Retrieved April 1, 2019 .
  20. ↑ 6326: redevelopment .
  21. ↑ 6326: redevelopment .