Skip to main content

Austria-Slovenia tunnel project awarded

Construction of the second tube of the Karawanks Tunnel connecting Austria and Slovenia is now going ahead. The work will be headed by Austrian contractors, ARGE Swietelsky Tunnelbau and Swietelsky Baugesellschaft. The 7.8km-long tunnel route runs under the Alpine Karawanks mountain range. The Austrian motorway operator Asfinag is investing around €168 million into the project, while the European Commission is providing €25 million. The work being carried out will include building new rescue routes as wel
August 9, 2018 Read time: 1 min
Construction of the second tube of the Karawanks Tunnel connecting Austria and Slovenia is now going ahead. The work will be headed by Austrian contractors, ARGE Swietelsky Tunnelbau and Swietelsky Baugesellschaft.


The 7.8km-long tunnel route runs under the Alpine Karawanks mountain range. The Austrian motorway operator Asfinag is investing around €168 million into the project, while the European Commission is providing €25 million. The work being carried out will include building new rescue routes as well as installing the latest fire protection facilities and communication systems.

Construction of the first tunnel commences in 1986 and this was opened to traffic in 1991. The tunnel links the Austrian Autobahn A11 from Villach with the A2 highway, running across the border to the Slovenian cities of Kranj and Ljubljana. The road tunnel forms part of the transport axis Munich-Salzburg-Ljubljana-Thessaloniki, also called Pan-European Corridor-X.

Related Content

  • New bridge connection from Nigeria to Cameroon
    August 18, 2015
    A new bridge is being built linking Cameroon and Nigeria and spanning the Cross River where it forms the border between the two countries.
  • Mozambique road tender due to open
    October 26, 2016
    The tender process is opening for the project to rebuild an important road route in Mozambique. The road stretch is in Cabo Delgado Province and runs a distance of over 170km from Mueda to Negomano, which lies on the country’s border with neighbouring Tanzania. Continuing north eastwards beyond Negomano on the same route lies the Unity Bridge that spans the Rovuma River and which forms the border between Mozambique and Tanzania. Upgrading the 100km road stretch will help trade between the two countries and
  • New Finnish tunnel project in Lahti
    December 15, 2017
    A tunnel project is being planned in the Finnish city of Lahti. The tunnel section will form part of the Lahti Ring Road. The project is being carried out by the VALTARI consortium, which was set up to construct the Lahti stretch of the City of Lahti's new Southern Ring Road on Main Road 12 in Finland. As well as the Lahti Southern Ring Road on Main Road 12, the project includes the improvement of the south access road on highway 167.
  • A new road maintenance approach developed jointly can improve efficiency
    April 11, 2013
    Innovative road maintenance solutions in Austria. A sophisticated system for managing maintenance tasks has been developed in Austria to meet the specific needs of a highway concession package. Bonaventura Straßenerhaltungs-GmbH is a 100%-owned business of the French company Egis Road Operation S.A., and was founded to provide the road maintenance services of the first Austrian PPP infrastructure project "Ypsilon"(PPP-Ostregion, Paket 1) granted by ASFINAG. The concessionaire won a 30-year contract in 2006