President Andrzej Duda visited the construction site as builders as were putting the finishing touches on the 2,058-metre tunnel some 65 km from the historic city of Kraków, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The PLN 1 billion (EUR 210 million) tunnel, one of the most modern in this part of Europe, runs through the mountain of Lubań Mały connecting the villages of Naprawa and Skomielna Biała in Poland's southern Małopolskie province, officials said.
Once it opens to traffic, it will be part of a busy national road that leads from Kraków to Zakopane, a top tourist destination in the Tatra Mountains near the Polish-Slovak border.
Work on the tunnel began in March 2017 and suffered some delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and adverse weather conditions, reporters were told.
'This tunnel is practically ready'
Meeting with the media in front of the new tunnel on Wednesday, the Polish president said: “We can say that this tunnel is practically ready. It will be launched, opened to all drivers, in two weeks or so. This is an extremely important moment, a watershed of some kind.”
Duda described the new tunnel as “a very important project, both for the local community and for the tourists, who will find it easier to reach the Tatra Mountains.”
He told reporters that similar projects had been delivered or were under way on the S3 road in western Poland, on the transnational Via Carpatia highway and in the northwestern Polish city of Świnoujście.
”Poland is expanding its infrastructure, delivering modern projects,” the president said.
Duda was accompanied at the site by Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk, who reaffirmed that the new tunnel “will be unveiled in November.”
Adamczyk said the passage, along with other upgrades, would help eliminate traffic congestion on the Kraków-Zakopane road.
He added: “It’s a big achievement that the region is becoming open in terms of its transport connections, unlocking the great economic potential that lies dormant within it.”
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, tvp.info