The National Highway Company (NDS) opened the right tunnel tube of the Višňové highway tunnel in the direction of Košice shortly after 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The department of media communication of the NDS informed about it. After the tunnel’s spring maintenance, which was originally supposed to last until May 17, the longest Slovak highway tunnel is now fully available to motorists.
Traffic in the left tunnel tube towards Bratislava was resumed by highway officials around noon on Wednesday. “Without a doubt, it was by far the most complicated NDS operational event in many years. Nevertheless, we managed the maintenance without any problems. In total, over 150 workers, dozens of mechanisms and a number of specialists in various fields were coordinated.” said Director General of NDS Filip Macháček.
He added that over the course of approximately ten days, NDS workers and contractors managed to carry out warranty service for the technological and construction parts, carried out geotechnical monitoring, cleaned the tunnel lining and the roadway, 120 SOS cabins, thousands of pieces of lighting and 66 kilometers of drainage pipes. The entire technology of the tunnel passed inspections, preventive inspections and functional tests.
The first spring maintenance of the Višňové tunnel started on May 4. The NDS coordinated the closure of the tunnel with the remedial works of the landslide on the I/18 road in the Strečnianská úžina. During the closure of the tunnel on the bypass route, all construction work was stopped.
