The Bujanov Tunnel () is the longest double track railway tunnel in
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
, on the
Margecany
Margecany (, ) is a village and municipality in the Gelnica District in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia. Total municipality population was, in 2011, 1964 inhabitants. Margecany is a very important railway junction situated on the main railw ...
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Košice
Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...
route. It is long and is the second longest railway tunnel in Slovakia after the
Harmanec Tunnel. It was opened in 1955.
History
During the electrification and extension of the Košice-Bohumín railway to the double-track družby line, the construction of a tunnel under the Bujanov hill was started in the early 1950s. Running the important line through a 3,410.7 m long tunnel was supposed to significantly speed up traffic in the difficult section, where, in addition, the construction of the Ružín dam, necessary for the ironworks under construction near Košice, was envisaged.
Complex geological conditions, difficult terrain and underestimation of the preparation meant that the construction was prolonged and the opening of the entire družby line was postponed, and the unrealistic opening date of 1952 finally became 1955. The tunnel was built using a modified Austrian tunnelling method and the Belgian - undercutting method, which greatly accelerated the delayed construction. The cost of the construction of the two-way tunnel eventually reached 370 million crowns and together with the Margecany - Košice section it was put into use on 5 November 1955.
External links
Bujanovský tunel
Railway tunnels in Slovakia
Tunnels completed in 1955
1955 establishments in Czechoslovakia
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