The consortium Strabag SE (85%) and Jaeger Bau GmbH (15%) secured the EUR570 million contract for the construction of two parallel, 20 km-long single-track bores for the Koralm tunnel, using 9.9 m-diameter TBMs. The work will begin early-2011 in order to complete construction on the main section by late 2018. Some of the 8.5 million t of excavated material will be used to produce 1.0 million cu m of concrete for the inner lining of the tunnel. The work presents a particular technical challenge, as the only access to the underground construction site is through a 60 m shaft near Deutschlandsberg in southern Styria. The tunnel is the main section of the new Koralm railway link between Graz and Klagenfurt and represents an important section of the Baltic-Adriatic axis of Trans European Network corridor 23 between Gdansk, Warsaw, Vienna and Bologna. At 32.5 km-long, the Koralm will be the longest railway tunnel in Austria. More from Strabag SE at www.strabag.com. 44/10.