Croatia Finalizes Construction of Zagreb-Macelj MotorwayThe Zagreb-Macelj motorway forms part of the European and Croatian road network between Zagreb and the Slovenian border in Macelj, north of Zagreb. It is a key link on Croatia's planned motorway system of 1,433.5 kilometres and is integrated into the Trans-European Network (TEN) designated as E59 and the Crete corridor X programme.The Zagreb-Macelj motorway has been developed as a Public Private Partnership (PPP) under which the concession company Autocesta Zagreb Macelj (AZM) is responsible for the design, finance, building, operation and maintenance. Hrvatske Ceste holds 49% while Walter Concession Holding held 51% of shares under a 28-year concession. Since the collapse of Walter Bau in 2005 (read E-News Weekly 6/2005 & 4/2005) and the subsequent acquisition by Strabag of strategic assets of the German company (read E-News Weekly 11/2005), the concession and construction has been taken over by Strabag. The designers are IPZ of Croatia and Müller & Hereth of Germany. The project supervisor is IGH of Croatia. An environmental report was produced by Atkins. Visit www.strabag.com or www.strabag.hr, www.mueller-hereth.com, www.igh.hr and www.atkins.comConstruction of the 59,249 m-long Zagreb-Macelj stretch has been divided in three sections (A, B and C or south, middle and north sections from Zagreb to Macelj). Section A (7.4 km) was built in 22.5 months from 29th July, 2004 to 11th June, 2006. It includes three bridges. An existing two-lane carriageway was rehabilitated and upgraded to a two-carriageway motorway. Sections B and C1 (33 km) were constructed in 16.5 months from 29th July, 2004 to 12th December, 2005. Two new toll stations were built. Sections C2 and C3 total 18.5 km and will be ready in 33 months. Work commenced on 29th July, 2004 and will be completed on 27th April, 2007. They include three intersections, 10 viaducts and big underpasses, three toll stations and six tunnels.The tunnels on sections C2 and C3 represent a total length of 5,927 metres. The tunnels are: Levacica (358 m / 374 m), Vidovci (261 m / 266 m), Sveta Tri Kralja (1,235 m / 1,740 m), Brezovica (590 m), Durmanec (2 x 204 m) and Frukov Krc (341 m / 354 m). The tunnels also include five cross passages, two breakdown bays and one emergency tunnel, 1,235 m long, parallel to the Sveta Tri Kralja tunnel. The total costs for the tunnels is EUR74.3 million. The excavation profile extends from 20 sq m up to 120 sq m. The geology mainly consisted of silt-tone stone and sandstone. Tunnelling produced 414,600 cubic metres of spoil. To excavate each of the five twin bored tunnels on the Krapina-Macelj section, four drives were excavated at the same time using NATM in sequential phase (top heading, bench and, if necessary, invert). Excavation was done by means of conventional excavators and drill/blast. Four Liebherr tunnel excavators were used (three LH 932T and one LH 912T) and four Atlas Copco drilling rigs (two L2C, one 352 S and one 145). The jumbos were used also for installing pipe roofs and rock bolts. Austin Powder from Austria supplied the explosives through the Croatian supplier Croex Trade. Crews excavated always just from one side, except in the Sveta Tri Kralja tunnel, where some excavation was done from the other side. All construction was finished in November 2006. Opening is scheduled in April 2007. Visit www.liebherr.com, www.atlascopco.com or www.boomer-rig.com and www.austinpowder.atThe support system consists of 80,000 cubic metres of wet shotcrete, 6,100 tonnes of reinforcements for the secondary inner lining, 260,000 metres of rock bolts, 1,500 tonnes of steel arches and 130,000 metres of steel bars and pipe roof, which were grouted or filled up with cement. ALWAG of Austria supplied the bolts, steel arches and AT 114 mm pipe roof bars. Visit www.alwag.atAsamer and Hufnagel from Austria, through the Croation company Kamen Psunj, installed two mobile batching plants on site. Visit www.asamer.atFor mucking-out, four loaders (three Volvo L 150E and one Cat 966 GII) and eight Volvo A 25D dumper trucks were used at peak time. Visit www.cat.comSubcontractor Bauveg-Winkler from Austria installed the waterproofing membrane, the shutter systems for formwork (four pieces for normal profile and one piece for cross passages) were manufactured by Strabag's company BMTI, while Doka supplied one piece for breakdown bays. Visit www.doka.comVisit sl.drustvo-dpgk.si/sitedata/383/upload/File/Tema_Topic_4.pdf to read a paper on the tunnels presented at the 8th international conference on tunnel construction and underground structures held in Ljubljana in November 2006: Construction Report of Tunnels Krapina-Macelj - Motorway Section Zagreb-Macelj, Croatia and www.agaportal.de/pdf/eng/environmental_rep-rev4.pdf 03/07.