Croatian tunnel, the "Brinje" elected best tunnel in Europe in 2007

Today at Brussels the company Croatian Motorways (HAC – Hrvatske autoceste) was awarded with the FIA prize for the tunnel 'Brinje' along the motorway Zagreb – Split (A1), as one of the safest European tunnels in the year 2007.

EuroTAP 2007 inspected 51 major road tunnels important for transEuropean road traffic located in 13 countries across Europe, while Croatia was the only participating country without being a member of the EU.

The ‘Brinje’ tunnel is 1540 meters long and it was opened for traffic in the year 2004. Other Croatian tunnels which up until now have participated in the same type of tunnel test are the the Ucka, Tuhobic, Plasina, Javorova Kosa, Gric and Mala Kapela.

According to EuroTAP, this kind of tunnel test often gives recommendations to operators of how to improve their safety performances. A good example for that procedure was the Spanish tunnel ‘San Juan’ which a few years ago was elected the most dangerous tunnel in Europe. The Spanish government instantly invested EUR 4 million and in the year 2005 the same tunnel received ‘good’ test results.

Still, every fifth tunnel in Europe does not satisfy minimal safety standards. The most common shortcomings refer to a deficiency in fire protection and lacking escape and rescue routes.

Croatia counts a total of 42 km in tunnels, 11 of those tunnels are exceeding the length of 1 km.

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