OREANDA-NEWS. During his working visit to the Republic of the Northern Ossetia, Roman Starovoit, Head of the Federal Road-Building Agency, stopped over at the construction site at the 93rd kilometer of the Trans-Caucasus route and inspected Rok Tunnel reconstruction conducted by the units of the SK MOST Group of Companies.

Igor Tyunin, General Director of OJSC USK MOST and Anatoly Babinets, Director of the Special Branch of OJSC USK MOST in Vladikavkaz presented the status of reconstruction of the Rok Tunnel and construction methods for Roman Starovoit.

The builders have driven 3,238 meters of the tunnel cap art and 1,894 meters of the bottom part of the tunnel by the beginning of April. The total length of the tunnel is 3,730.4 meters. The permanent lining has been installed within a section of the inverted vault that is 1,174 meters long and also on the vaults and walls within a 784-meter long section. Three powered shuttering systems (two of them each 12 meters long and one that is 9 meters long) are used at a time for lining.

A total of 700 people are employed in the Rok Tunnel reconstruction, and the work is conducted around the clock in two shifts. The service traffic will tentatively open through the Rock Tunnel in the second half of 2014. Under the state-awarded contract, the entire facility will be commissioned in October 2015.

"This is a giant construction project," said Roman Starovoit after inspecting the Rok Tunnel construction site. "In addition to the economic benefits, the project is of socio-political significance because the tunnel is a "life line" for the Southern Ossetia. This route is very important for development of the Republic and of our border areas as well as for contacts between the relatives who live in different countries."

The Rok tunnel is the only transportation link connecting Russia to the Southern Ossetia. The tunnel reconstruction work started in December 2010 with the reworking of the service gallery. Reversible traffic through the enlarged service gallery was opened between Russia and the Southern Ossetia in July 2012, which allowed the builders to proceed with the work in the tunnel without closing down the motor traffic on the Trans-Caucasus Route.