News

On Thursday April 3, the Czech building company of Metrostav broke through the first of the two road tunnels that it had been constructing on the North Island since the Fall 2006. Participated also by the Island’s Minister of Transport Kristján Mőller and a number of other guests the ceremonial breakthrough took place on the shorter of these two tunnels, called Siglufjördur.
Having 3640 m altogether in length this tunnel will now allow the builders to commence also the construction efforts on the bridge to be used as a connection between both underground sections of the road route under construction. This route, is, however, led mainly through tunnels and will measure 14 kilometers when finished, interconnecting two fisher hamlets of Siglufjördur and Ólafsfjördur. The way from both hamlets to the regional capital of Akureyri will be cut short from today’s 200 kilometers to merely eighty kilometers. “Doubtlessly, the breakthrough of the first tunnel is a significant milestone within the project as a whole. At this point, we have three fifths behind, and despite the unexpected complications that come hand in hand with the realization we will complete and hand over the work on schedule, i.e. not later than in December 2000,” Václav Soukup, director of the division which construct the tunnels on the Island, said.

Mainly the initial phase of the construction is said to have been very demanding for the Metrostav drifters and engineers, as they had to get accustomed to the local harsh weather conditions, geological specifics, and some of the new technologies. When working in great depths (up to 800 m) they have to face mainly the strong ground water influxes that appear at huge pressure eruptions and are so cold that they cannot be stopped with any conventional cement grouts as it fails to cure up in such icy water.

From the very beginning it was clear to the Czech builders that the work on the island would be far from easy, but even the Island’s investor did not expect the conditions to be intricate and demanding like this. Despite that the Czechs are successful in drifting up to 200 meters a month and they have also had a merit in a new record when they drifted 330 meters of the Ólafs tunnel in July 2007, i.e. the best performance ever achieved in constructing similar tunnels on the Island.

Thanks to the Siglu Tunnel breakthrough the builders got into the otherwise inaccessible regions of the Hédinsfjördur Fjord, being able to tackle here the bridge construction preparations. Once on the opposite side of this fjord, they are going to commenced there the counter-drifting efforts on the second of the tunnels, the Ólafs Tunnel which will be 7,124 m long when finished (2,700 m are driven up at the moment). In this way they will recover the time they lost by struggling the ground waters. The Siglu Tunnel will form the only access to be used for all the construction jobs in this stage of the project until the Ólafs Tunnel breakthrough.

As a member of the multinational DDM Group the joint-stock company of Metrostav ranks itself among the largest construction companies in the Czech Republic, having an extensive background in tunneling. It saw its origins in the 1970s’, set apart then to construct the Prague Metro. In spite of its later transformation to a multipurpose building company, it is still active in underground projects. Together with its other partners in the association Metrostav is now making ready for commissioning another part of the Prague Metro’s C-line from Ládví to Letňany and the tunnel near Klimkovice on the D47 Motorway. Within the “New Connection” project the company is completing the construction of the railway tunnels under the Prague Vítkov Hill, working also in the metropolis on the 6.4km long Blanka Tunnel Complex which will become a part of the City Ring.


For more information contact:
Frantisek POLAK
spokesman Metrostav a.s.
Tel.: +420-266 709 294
E-mail: polakf@metrostav.cz