Police starts raids due to delayed tunnel construction

On Monday, the National Crime Agency (NAKA) started carrying out raids in the Bratislava, Prešov and Žilina regions as part of the operation 'Tunnel'. It concerns activities linked to the construction of the 14-kilometre-long Lietavská Lúčka-Višňové D1 motorway section which includes the longest tunnel in the country, almost 7.5 kilometres. Police cars have been seen in front of the National Highway Company (NDS) building. In March, NDS terminated the contract with the Salini Impregilo consortium, which was originally contracted for the stretch. NDS viewed its performance as unsatisfactory. The dispute over obligations stemming from the contract are still ongoing, however. Meanwhile, NDS has been drawing up a tender to find a new contractor.
The history of the construction of the tunnel is full of delays. Exploration works on the tunnel started in 1998. It was followed by technical problems. The start of the actual construction was scheduled for 2003, and was postponed three times, until it begin in 2014. The works were scheduled to last until December 2019, however, they are currently stopped and will probably take at least until 2023.