The 2,058-metre tunnel some 65 km from the historic city of Kraków was built to make it easier for tourists to reach the Tatra Mountains by helping eliminate traffic congestion on the Kraków-Zakopane road.
The two-lane tunnel is now believed to effectively supplant the old road connection, busy and infamous for frequent accidents.
One of the most modern in this part of Europe, the tunnel runs through the mountain of Lubań Mały connecting the villages of Naprawa and Skomielna Biała in Poland's southern Małopolskie province.
Once it opens to traffic, it will be part of a busy national road that leads from Kraków to Zakopane, a top tourist destination in the Tatra Mountains near the Polish-Slovak border.
Work on the tunnel began in March 2017 and suffered some delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and adverse weather conditions.
Poland’s president Andrzej Duda last month described the new tunnel as “a very important project, both for the local community and for the tourists, who will find it easier to reach the Tatra Mountains.”
He told reporters that similar projects had been delivered or were under way on the S3 road in western Poland, on the transnational Via Carpatia highway and in the northwestern Polish city of Świnoujście.
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Source: IAR