The 5.5 km key section between Sentvid and Koseze of the A2 north-south motorway through Slovenia opened to traffic on 1st July, 2008. The stretch connects the southbound motorway from Austria to the Ljubljana ring road, taking cars off Celovska Road - one of the most congested thoroughfares in the city. The section will divert a lot of transit traffic away from the densely populated Siska borough and improve the quality of life. Celovska Road, which runs through Siska, is one of the busiest roads in the country with an average daily traffic of 60,000 vehicles.
At a cost of some EUR245 million, or nearly EUR50 million per kilometre, this is the most expensive stretch of motorway in Slovenia. The section includes the 2 x 1,462 m Sentvid tunnel, which is one and a half year late and nearly three times over budget (the initial EUR48 million bill soared to EUR135 million), although two side tunnels were added later. Click si/16.
The Sentvid-Koseze section opened even though it is not fully completed. Two side tunnels, which will connect the main tunnel to Celovska Road, are scheduled for completion in the autumn of 2009. The section essentially completes the ring road around the capital, some 20 years after the start of construction work. The ring road is at the centre of the so-called motorway crossing, lying at the intersection of the main north-south and east-west motorways.
"I'm sure the people will quickly forget the problems in the construction of the Sentvid tunnel," transport minister Radovan Zerjav said. Yet the lessons from the project may not be lost on the construction industry, project designers, contractors, project managers, national motorway company DARS, the transport ministry and the politicians, he said. "The delays or cost overruns were no fun for either the investor or the users. But I dare say that the team opening this section today resolved all issues quickly, resolutely and responsibly," the minister said.
Just about six hours after opening, the tunnel was closed in both directions after a large chunk of some 2 sq m of fire-retardant plaster coating fell to the ground in the final section of the northbound tunnel. The damage was fixed overnight by the contractor SCT and the tunnel reopened on 2nd July. DARS said that the plaster was stripped from all the beams in the roof of the tunnel. The new tunnel was reopened overnight after workers carried out emergency repairs to fix the plaster. The fire-retardant coating was installed by UK subcontractor Ceramicoat. The company's has been informed about the incident and representatives travelled to Slovenia to inspect the damage and decide on the repairs, SCT said. Visit www.dars.si, www.sct.si and www.ceramicoat.co.uk
The tunnel where the plaster fell off was actually the old tunnel, which had served as the entrance to the motorway from the nearby Celovska Road. It was built in 1984 and the tunnel was later extended. The fire coat fell from stainless steel plates that were installed as water leak protection. The stainless steel was not covered with netting to support coating.
Meanwhile, the transport minister could not hide his anger over the incident saying: "What happened in the Sentvid tunnel should by no means have happened and is completely unacceptable. The contractor is responsible for this and will have to pay for the repairs and associated costs.”
ZIL Inzeniring, the project managers hired by DARS to check the quality of the works in the tunnel, said that adhesive tests had shown that the plaster would stick to the beams, which is why it will carry out a study to see what went wrong. "We will sit down with the contractor and subcontractors to check again whether the work was done properly," ZIL Inzeniring said. Visit www.zilinzeniring.si
It seems the project was originally designed with not flammable shield plates. Later on, in spring 2008, due to the necessity to speed up and save money, the project was changed into fire protection sprayed coating. The base concrete was not properly sanded or prepared for good bonding with fire protection layer. Vibrations from above train traffic, pressure changes as well as vibrations and vacuum produced by vehicles, especially trucks and buses, weakened the plaster coating.
The following weekend, the tunnel was again closed and inspected by Ceramicoat and the project management company. On 7th July, the tunnel was closed at 20:00 pm with plans to remove some more fire protection layer scheduled in the next days until Friday 11th July. http://24ur.com/novice/slovenija/sentvid-spet-odprt.html 28/08.
