OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2011. Reconstruction work on Roksky Tunnel service gallery at the border with Southern Osetia will be completed in October 2011.

Specialists of the SK MOST Group of Companies are driving the gallery, which runs in parallel with the Roky Tunnel, by advancing from both ends. Two rotation crews are now working in the gallery, and they drive about 600 meters a month using mining machines.

The service gallery reconstruction is aimed at enlarging the gallery diameter. Next year, when main tunnel reconstruction is started, the gallery is expected to be used for traffic between Russia and Southern Ossetia. According to the schedule, the work on the service gallery is to be completed in summer next year.

Roky Tunnel is the only route between Southern Ossetia and Russia. The reconstruction of the tunnel, which is located at the 93rd kilometer of Alagir - Nizhni Zaramag motorway was started in December 2010. The work is conducted at the elevation of twenty five hundred meters above the sea level. The installation, which is 3,660-meters long, should have been worked over a long time ago because the tunnel vaults were being damaged by ground water; cave-ins have been recorded in several sections; and the engineering infrastructure of the tunnel has become obsolete.