As part of the project to upgrade the railway line between Maribor and Šentilje, the groundbreaking ceremony of the newly built Pekel tunnel was held. The first train is expected to pass through it next year, and the old railway tunnel is expected to be dedicated to cycling.
In addition to the construction of the second track of the Divača-Koper railway line, the upgrade of the railway line between Maribor and the border with Austria, estimated at just under 300 million euros, is one of the largest projects in the country in the field of railway infrastructure construction. “So far everything is going according to plan,” said the State Secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure at today’s event in the tunnel Alenka Bratušek.
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The Pekel tunnel is being built north of Maribor, east of the existing line, which currently runs through the Počehova railway tunnel. It is 1,530 meters long and has, among other things, a rescue tunnel. “With this, we will make traffic faster, above all much safer, and use the old tunnel more sustainably, for cycling,” Bratuškova said.
“The construction of the railway tunnel was carried out according to this new Austrian method. The work was carried out from the north and the south side. First we started with the work from the north side, where the tunnel was excavated in a length of about 1000 meters,” explained the head of the railway investment sector at the Directorate of Infrastructure of the Republic of Slovenia Dejan Jurkovič.
One of the major challenges was the construction of the section under the expressway through Maribor. “The top of the tunnel is about seven meters below the highway. Here the daily progress was from one meter to one and a half meters per day, while on the north side the daily progress was about four meters,” said Jurkovič.
The construction of the tunnel and the construction of the 900-meter-long Pesnica viaduct are estimated at 101 million euros. The contractor Kolektor started preparatory work in the tunnel in September 2020, and construction began last May. “Our workers have proven that we know how to work professionally, qualitatively, quickly and efficiently, even in the most difficult conditions,” he said Andrej Košir from the mentioned company.
The godmother of the tunnel also addressed those gathered at today’s event Ljiljana Hergawho pointed out that the work in the tunnel is extremely demanding. “There is no room for fatigue, every little mistake can have very serious consequences. That’s why these are jobs that only the best can do,” she said.
The construction of the Pekel tunnel, where, among other things, they still have to build a concrete vault, must be completed by March of next year. Next comes the installation of the track and other equipment in it, and traffic should flow through it at the end of the year. “It is planned to transfer traffic from the old tunnel to this tunnel at the end of 2023,” said Jurkovič.
The new Pesnica viaduct will also be built as part of the project to upgrade the 18-kilometer Maribor-Šentilj railway line, which is co-financed with cohesion funds. According to Jurkovič, the final concreting will probably be carried out there in September, and the viaduct should also be finally built in the spring of next year. “This is the longest railway viaduct in Slovenia,” he explained.
With the construction of the aforementioned tunnel and viaduct, the entire project of upgrading the railway line will be completed, as the rest of the work has already been carried out. In this context, among other things, the main railway station in Maribor and the stations in Pesnica and Šentilj were modernized, the Šentilj tunnel was reconstructed, several level crossings were abolished and overpasses or underpasses were built instead, additional anti-noise fences were installed, and tracks and other equipment were modernized.
