In mid -December the Koralm tunnel between Styria and Carinthia will work. On Friday, the Court of Auditors published a test report on the mega project: it is not devastating, but defects are criticized, especially the large loss of time to completion.
While in the two federal states of Carinthia and Styria, the expectation of the tunnel opening is increasing, the Court of Auditors can look back critically until 2004. At that time, completion for 2018 was planned in the Koralmbahn treaty. The date was later corrected until 2023. Now it will be at the end of 2025 before train traffic can take a speed in the almost 33 km tunnel.
The decisive factor for the delay was in particular geological difficulties in tunnels. According to examiners, there were various standard, reduced tunnel speed and increased machine prison. In 2016 and 2017, the gigantic exercises were deep in the mountain several times. There was a total of 538 days of stagnation in propulsion.
Explosive: According to the Court of Auditors, “important risks” existed at the end of January 2024 that the appointment will be held at the end of 2025. The reasons are provided by bottlenecks of the delivery, the short period of time before the operational permit and the disputed decision for the inlet route in Carinthia in Carinthia in Carinthia (complaining for to St. Paul in the Lavant -Valley).
“These worries have now been erased, the worries are unfounded,” says ÖBB spokeswoman Rosanna Zernatto-Peschel to the request of “Krone”. The grazing ribs on the route would start in the coming weeks.
The total costs increased by five percent
The ÖBB infrastructure AG placed the total costs for the entire Koralmbahn project (from Graz to Klagenfurt) at the end of 2023 with 6.139 billion euros. The cost increase compared to 2012 was “relatively low” by five percent (282.4 million euros). Savings are achieved, among other things, through successes when ordering.
There is praise for ÖBB because she actively observed the project. However, only the umbrella project management was carried out with their own staff. External companies were put into use for essential tasks such as construction management and local construction supervision. “This brings the risk of a know -how loss,” warns the Hof van Auditors. Moreover, this included high costs, for the Deutschlandsberg section to St. Andrä (including tunnels) it was 12.30 million euros.
No stop at Graz airport
A politically hot iron is also dealt with in the test report: his own Koralbahn stop directly on Graz Airport. Their construction would be technically possible “through early construction work”, but is not on the plan of ÖBB and the Ministry of Transport – until the annoyance of the styric state government, which has been putting pressure on Vienna for years.
The styric Neos boss Niko Swatek criticizes that the state government is trying to calm the population with air closers “. The fate of the stop has long been sealed. The Pinks now want to ask FPö traffic councilor Claudia Holzer how Airport wants to make a better connection with public transport without a stop.
Source: Krone
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