The longest tram tunnel in the Czech Republic is a year away from completion. Residents of the Brno housing estate under which it is being dug should soon be relieved. One part of Brno’s Starý Lískovec housing estate has been a construction site for two years due to constructing a unique tram tunnel. Workers are digging under people’s houses.
“In total, we had to remove about 160,000 tons of soil. It’s made to the passage profile of the tram lines, so it’s about 4.4 meters in height and about 10 meters in width, ” said Vilém Huryta, director of the company that is building the tunnel. Work started on the construction in October 2019, and the first part of the tunnel was already roofed at the same time last year.
All the rough work will be finished this year. After that, the tunnel will have to install security, switches, traction, or cameras and lighting. All this must be linked remotely to the control room.
“The residents of the surrounding houses should be gradually relieved, as most of the work is now concentrated in the tunnel. “The works should be less noisy next year,” said Hana Tomatková, a Brno City Transport Company spokesperson.
The tram tunnel will connect Starý Lískovec and Bohunice, where the university campus and the university hospital are located, and more than 40,000 people head daily. In the future, it will take them only fifteen minutes from the center, thanks to a direct route without intersections that slow down traffic. The locals say with exaggeration that they will finally see their first metro. But it will only be 600 meters long.
The nearly CZK 1.5 billion construction must be completed by next autumn-not only to meet deadlines but also because the opening date is already stamped directly into the concrete at the tunnel entrance.