The Roki tunnel is a road construction that connects South and North Ossetia. It is located on the section of the Transcaucasian Highway, which runs under the Sokhs mountain. Its length exceeds three and a half kilometers. The northern gateway is located at an altitude of 2,040 meters above sea level, the mark of the south has exceeded the line of 2,110 m.
The construction of the passage began in the thirties of the XX century. It was marked by a loud explosion, which was carried out a few kilometers from the settlement of Upper Hands. The main goal pursued by the creators of the Roki Tunnel project was to unload railway lines in the direction of the Caspian and Black Seas.
Currently, the construction serves the highway leading from Russia to the cities of South Ossetia. Ten years ago, it provided the shortest road to the border territories of Iran and Turkey.
Historical reference
After a lengthy downtime of almost forty years, it was decided to continue building the Roki Tunnel. N. Nagaevsky acted as the master plan developer. He used the drawings of Ruten Glagolev. This fact was examined in detail in the periodical publication Planned Economy, which was published in 1976.
The total cost of the planned work amounted to almost 100 million rubles. It should be borne in mind that the original path was significantly reduced. According to R. Glagolev, the Roki tunnel was supposed to have its origin in a place called Ruk. The main difference between this area is the minimal threat of avalanches. However, the savings were so obvious that their recommendations were neglected.
Organizational moments
In the future, the technical state of travel required global modernization. Insufficiently conducted surveys contributed to this. Employees of the Leningrad and Caucasian branches of Giprotrans complained about the complexity of the relief characteristics of the region. The road through the Roksky tunnel ran at great depths, which also impeded the large-scale research work of engineers.
To eliminate the risk of collapse of the main corridor, workers built an auxiliary one. It was used only for reconnaissance purposes, and later became a component of the ventilation system of the building. The main rock in which the adit was laid was rocky soil.
Geological work
The tunnel pierced the main Caucasian ridge from two sides at once. Explosive activities were carried out at the southern and northern portals. For these purposes, the New Austrian method was used. At that time, the latest and most productive equipment was involved. Construction was carried out almost around the clock.
The mining was carried out on Soviet-made trucks. For finishing, they chose frost-resistant concrete M 300. In one calendar month, the tuners mastered up to 45 meters of soil.
Modernization
Reconstruction of the tunnel began seven years ago. In 2010, its first stage started, during which the technical adit was updated. The old corridor cover was completely removed and replaced, modern communication lines were installed.
To overcome 600 meters of production, it took exactly thirty days of continuous operation of two teams at once. In 2012, all the planned activities were completed, and under the Roki Pass temporarily open road traffic, but only in test mode.
The next stage was to change the waterproofing layer, expanding the passage section and finishing the internal space of the structure. On November 5, 2014, the official opening of the passage under Mount Sohs took place.