Georgia – Updates on Kvesheti-Kobi Highway Project

Locating entirely in the Mtskheta-Mtianeti Region, across the Dusheti and Kazbegi municipalities, which spans from the Kvesheti area and Khada Valley in the Dusheti Municipality to the Kobi area in the Kazbegi Municipality, the construction process of the Kvesheti-Kobi Highway project is actively underway. While excavating 2.242 m of the 9 km main tunnel has been done by the CREG single shield TBM (diameter 14,86 m), installing the segments at the same time; 3,300 m of the safety tunnel has been dug; the construction of the road leading to the tunnel is well underway.

The advantage of this new Kvesheti-Kobi Highway, which is due to be 22.7 km long and 11 km shorter than the existing road, will be decreasing the travel time between Kvesheti and Kobi to 15 min instead of 1 hour.

The Kvesheti-Kobi project, 22.7 km 2-lane road, is divided into two construction packages: Lot 1: Tskere – Kobi: Chainage km 12.7- km 22.7 (10 km), Lot 2: Kvesheti – Tskere: Chainage km 0.0 – km 12.7 (12.7 km).

Lot 1
An 8.86 km long tunnel (so-called Tunnel 5) with two cut and cover sections and a junction connecting to the existing road near Kobi are the subsets of the Tskere-Kobi portion of the project road. More specifically Lot 1 includes:

• 178 m long section of road from Tskere to the south portal of Tunnel 5;
• Tunnel 5 – 8.86 km long bidirectional, 2 lanes tunnel. It will ensure the transit of cargo at any time of the year
• Two cut and cover (C&C) sections of the Tunnel (200m – south portal and 8m – north portal) to protect
• from avalanches and move entrance portal farther from the Tskere;
• 9.06 km emergency gallery parallel to the Tunnel and 17 connections to the main tunnel;
• Technical buildings next to the north and south portals – the buildings include facilities building, pumping
• station and ventilation room;
• 0.8 km long section of road connecting the north portal of the tunnel with the existing road; and
• 214 m long local road diversion.

Lot 2
The Kvesheti – Tskere section includes a total of 2.5 km of tunnels and 1.5 km of bridges. The main elements of this section are:

• Kvesheti bypass road (length 3.2 km),
• Bridge 1 (length 27.8 m, height 14 m, 2 lane)
• Bridge 2 over the Aragvi river (length 435.28 m, height 62 m, 3 lanes)
• Tunnel 1 (length 1,540.64 m, 2 lanes) with gallery (1,092 m) (New Austrian tunneling method- NATM 3)
• Bridge 3 – Arch bridge over the River Khadistskali (length 426 m, height 164 m, 3 lane)
• Tunnel 2 (length 193.42 m, C&C, 3 lane)
• Bridge 4 over the left tributary of River Khadistskali river (length 147.80 m, height 26 m, 3 lane)
• Tunnel 3 (length 388.38 m)
• Bridge 5 (length 322 m, height 55 m, 3 lane)
• Tunnel 4 (length 299 m, C&C, 3 lane)
• Bridge 6 (length 218 m, height 48 m, 3 lane)
• Five grade junctions are planned and 3 service roads.

Responsible for advancing the works for the tunnel section (Lot 1) and road section (Lot 2) are China Railway Tunnel Group Co., Ltd. (CRTG) and China Railway 23rd Bureau Group Co (CR23) respectively. The determined date for the completion of the project is 2024.

For further information on this project please click here.