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Road construction: A flamingo travels to the Baltic Sea
The adventure in the Sudetes Mountains lasted 1,440 days. The construction of the lmost technically challenging section of the S3 has tested PORR’s pioneering spirit in Poland time and time again.
The stretch between Bolków and Kamienna Góra is one of the most beautiful in the country. And it is located on one of the country’s main transport routes, the S3. The motorway runs along the western border between the Polish coast and the Czech Republic. We have completed no fewer than 69 civil engineering structures on our 16.1-kilometre-long section. It all started six years ago.
Unforgettable
We started the planning work in 2018, and it kept us busy for twelve months. It then took us another few months to obtain all the necessary authorisations. We already knew back then that it would be an unforgettable project due to its scope, complexity, and the technologies used. But we had no idea what else was in store for us. First there was the pandemic. Despite all the restrictions, we kept the construction site running around the clock. Later, we had to deal with the consequences of the war in Ukraine. But nothing could stop our dedicated team of several hundred people from twelve different nations.
Impressive
If you now drive along our section, you can enjoy the view of the Sudetes Mountains and the summit of the Sněžka. However, it is not just the picturesque landscape that is impressive – even more so are our excellent engineering skills. We completed a total of 69 structures on the 16.1-kilometre stretch, including 15 bridges and viaducts with a total length of 2,186 metres, 18 crossings for wildlife, and two tunnels. We built the shorter, 320-metre-long TS-32 using the cut-and-cover method. We dug through the rock for the 2,300-metre-long TS-26. We used 550 tonnes of explosives, moved 530,000m³ of material, and transformed our construction site into a mining facility for 444 days. The tunnel has two tubes – each with two lanes – which we connected with nine emergency passages and an emergency stopping bay. We also equipped it with a variety of technical facilities. We are proud to have realised such an important road connection in Europe, which will ultimately take the Czechs to the Baltic Sea more quickly. You can see what a flamingo and a Škoda 100 have to do with it in our video.
Ideally equipped: the TS-26
Heated carriageway surfaces at the tunnel entrances prevent ice.
LED lighting adapts to the intensity of the sun.
The video surveillance system with real-time and thermal imaging enables faster detection of incidents, even when the tunnel is filled with smoke.
Sensors at the tunnel entrance measure the vehicle height.
The efficient ventilation system, linked to the fire detection zone, activates in the specific area of the smoke.
Fire protection equipment with 60 manual signalling points, 62 smoke detectors, and 4 heat detectors are positioned along the entire length of both tunnel tubes
