First Drivers Pass through Newly Opened Visnove Tunnel on Monday Evening

Visnove, 22 December (TASR) - The Visnove tunnel on the newly opened D1 motorway section between Lietavska Lucka and Dubna Skala in Zilina region officially opened to drivers on Monday evening, TASR was told by spokesperson for the National Highway Company (NDS) Tomas Ferencak. The construction of the tunnel took more than 27 years, with several interruptions. The ribbon was cut at the western portal of the tunnel on Monday morning by Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) and Transport Minister Jozef Raz (a Smer-SD nominee), together with representatives of NDS and the contractor. "If 20,000 vehicles pass under Strecno every day, a quarter of them lorries, we can all imagine what a huge relief this will be for the region and for people travelling there," Fico said in his speech. According to NDS head Filip Machacek, the new motorway section is subject to standard tolls and the maximum speed limit in the Visnove tunnel is 100 kilometres per hour. "At least 80 percent of traffic passing through Strecno will enter the tunnel, which will be tens of thousands of vehicles," noted Machacek. The exploratory gallery of Slovakia's longest tunnel began to be excavated back in 1998 and broke through with a two-year delay in September 2002. However, construction of the tunnel itself started only 12 years later. The D1 section with the Visnove tunnel was originally built by a consortium led by Salini Impregilo and Duha, with which NDS terminated the contract in March 2019. A public tender for completion of the project was won by construction company Skanska. The Visnove tunnel has a total length of 7.5 kilometres and is the longest tunnel in Slovakia. The entire D1 Lietavska Lucka–Dubna Skala motorway section, including the tunnel, is 13.5 kilometres long. It bypasses the road through the Strecno Gorge on the River Vah, a notorious bottleneck on the main road from western to eastern Slovakia. The section forms part of the planned comprehensive motorway connection between Bratislava and Kosice. am/mcs