Work has been completed in the tunnel drilled into the Luboń Mały mountain, within the section of the S7 Naprawa – Skomielna Biała expressway, i.e. on the so-called Zakopianka, leading to the capital of the Polish Tatra Mountains- Zakopane. The surface on the access roads to the tunnel portals is ready, while work is still being carried out on the roadway separation strip and service roads. On Wednesday, 19 October 2022, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda and Minister of Infrastructure Andrzej Adamczyk visited the investment site.

“This tunnel is practically ready. Literally in two weeks or so it will be opened, put into operation, open to all drivers. This is an extremely important moment, an epochal change”, said President Andrzej Duda.

The President emphasised that the tunnel on the Zakopianka is a very important investment both for the local community and for tourists who will be able to get to the Tatra Mountains more easily. He recalled that similar investments are being or have been made on the S3 route, on the Via Carpatia or in Świnoujście.

The tunnel has two chambers (tubes), one for each carriageway. The length of the structure is 2058 m, the height is 4.7 m and the usable width is 14.9 m. The tunnel has two lanes of 3.5 m each and a 3 m emergency lane, with the possibility of a third lane in the future.

“To excavate the two lines of the tunnel, heavy equipment and explosives (180 tonnes) were used. Rock material of 600,000 m3 was excavated. For comparison, an Olympic swimming pool has about 3750 m3, so we could backfill 160 such swimming pools with this material”, informs the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways.

In constructing the target tunnel, a total of 190,000 m3 of concrete was used. This amount of concrete can be used to make 45 km of dual carriageway road surface. 48 000 t of steel was also used.

Adrian Andrzejewski