Half of Cortanovci tunnel on Stara Pazova-Novi Sad railway completed

Nearly a half of the Cortanovci tunnel, a part of the Belgrade-Budapest high-speed railway, has been completed, says the Russian company RZD International, which is behind this project.

The company is reconstructing the existing railway and building a new double-track one for speeds of up to 200 km/h. The Cortanovci tunnel and the 3-km viaduct in the flooding area of the Danube are the two most complex structures on the route. The Belgrade-Budapest high-speed railway, in the section between Stara Pazova and Novi Sad, should be completed in 2021.

– We are building the viaduct in the area where the hilly terrain gives way to the plain around the Danube, which requires the implementation of demanding technical solutions, many of which are advanced when it comes to rail engineering in Europe – Sergey Alexeyevich Pavlov, General Director of RZD International, explains for Politika.

As Pavlov points out, regardless of certain problems caused by geological discrepancies with the project in the viaduct zone, the works are progressing ahead of the schedule, and all issues are solved together with the investor, the Infrastructure of Serbian Railways, with the involvement of Russian and international planning and construction organizations.

Sergey Alexeyevich Pavlov talked in detail about the activities of RZD International and its involvement in the reconstruction of Serbian railways in his interview with eKapija in late 2018.

The construction of the tunnel is also going according to plan. A total of 700 meters has been built so far, amounting to around 45% of all works.

–We are currently laying tracks only on those sections for which the Serbian side has issued building permits. Here, there’s a delay caused by the prolonging of the issuing of the building permit. We are preparing a plan in order to compensate for the delay on both the Russian and the Serbian side – Sergey Alexeyevich Pavlov said.

The construction of the viaduct and the Cortanovci tunnel began on August 11, 2017, and the project is worth around USD 337.6 million. Two tunnel tubes are being built, each 1.1 kilometers long, as well as 2.9-km viaduct on 58 columns, the tallest of which will have the height of 28 meters.

RZD International Beograd

Infrastruktura Železnice Srbije Beograd

RZD International

Infrastructure of Serbian Railways

Cortanovci tunnel

construction of viaduct and Cortanovci tunnel

viaduct

Belgrade Budapest railway

Sergey Alexeyevich Pavlov