Historical Background of Tunnelling in Greece
- The total length of motorway, railway and hydraulic tunnels that have been constructed in Greece during the last 25 years exceeds 350km. Such period is considered as the “tunnelling golden age” for Greece.
- Numerous tunnelling projects were completed
successfully and on time in particularly complex geological environments and geotechnical conditions. - New tunnel design methodologies were developed, providing sound solutions to numerous challenging engineering problems.
- The gained design and construction experience in dealing with weak, heterogeneous geological formations have already been transferred and used in similar difficult tunnelling projects around the world.
- Tunnelling in the framework of the new concession projects provided to the Greek engineers with real “value engineering” skills.
- The future of tunnelling and underground space use in Greece and the Balkans Region is promising.
Evolution of Highway Tunnelling during the last 12 years in Greece
The EGNATIA PROJECT
The Egnatia highway project, which was constructed on the threshold of the 21st century, is one of the largest road construction projects ever constructed in Europe. It is the modern reincarnation of the great Roman highway known as the Via Egnatia. The 670 km Egnatia Motorway, which is part of the Trans-European road network, is a modern closed dual carriageway motorway spanning Northern Greece from its western to its eastern border. Egnatia highway traverses extremely diverse natural morphology of great beauty. It crosses the Pindos mountains, which are the southernmost extension of the Alps. Tunnelling conditions range from relatively straightforward to extremely difficult, when weak rock masses have suffered from excessive alpine tectonic compression, mainly in the mountainous western part of the project.
> The highway includes 73 tunnels with a total tunnel length of approximately 100km (15 of them with lengths from 800 to 4600m).
> The design and construction of the tunnels have contributed to the development of a high level of tunnelling expertise.
The highway includes 73 tunnels with a total tunnel length of approximately 100km (15 of them with lengths from 800 to 4600m).
The design and construction of the tunnels have contributed to the development of a high level of tunnelling expertise.
