The tram tunnel in Žabovřeská has been breached

Brno – The last breakthrough has been completed today by builders in Brno's Žabovřeská street, where a tunnel for trams is being created in the rock under Wilson's forest. The blasted section measures 334 meters; workers have been breaking the rock since spring using heavy machinery and explosives. Now, work will follow inside the tunnel, on the escape shaft, and on the retaining walls. Workers have removed 30,000 m³ of earth from the tunnel and used 14 tons of explosives during the blasts, said David Fiala, director of the Brno branch of the Road and Motorway Directorate, to journalists today. The tram tunnel is essential for the construction of the next section of the large city ring road.

Rock blasting began in May, with explosions occurring about three times daily inside the tunnel. The blasted section will be followed by a transfer section, which has already been built on the construction site. In the future, this section will be filled with rock excavated from the site. The road gallery will also be filled. Workers are already working on the road gallery by removing rock and stabilizing the slope. "The construction is proceeding essentially with ongoing traffic. Partial restrictions due to blasting on the gallery are planned for the turn of September and October,” Fiala added.

By relocating the tram line into the planned tunnel, space will be created for the expansion of the overloaded road. The first tram on line 1 is scheduled to run through the tunnel in January 2023. "When I see the speed at which the builders are working, I believe that trams will be running here in a year and a half," said Miloš Havránek, the director of the Brno Public Transport Company.

The construction of the large city ring road Žabovřeská began its first phase in 2018. Builders first worked on the section between the Kníničky and Kamenomlýn bridges. These works were completed this spring when they moved further towards Pisárky. The project aims to eliminate the bottleneck between the two already built sections of the city ring road. The road will be widened due to the relocation of the tram into the tunnel, and traffic will be smoother. The completion of the ring road in Žabovřeská street is expected to last until about mid-2024. The costs amount to 2.03 billion crowns. The contractor is a consortium of the companies Eurovia, Hochtief, and Subterra.