Karpatka is declared as the name of the tunnel boring machine (TBM) that will drill the 2.2 km long tunnel on the S19 Rzeszów Południe – Babica expressway.
The competition committee containing GDDKiA, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the contractor, a consortium of Mostostal Warszawa, and Acciona Construction chose a preference of names.
After, an online survey was performed which closed on 16/12/2022, and as a result, Karpatka won decisively (6073 votes), followed by Big Mi (822). The other suggested names were Nela (673), Via Karpatka (558), Podkarpatka (529) and Bieszczadka (408).
The “Name the TBM machine” competition’s winner will be able to visit the tunnel’s construction site on S19 Rzeszów Południe – Babica. In addition, they will receive a set of promotional gifts from GDDKiA and the contractor.
At the end of 2022, the largest parts of the TBM – loaded onto three barges and two pontoons – had reached the Opole harbor and were then moved by road to the Babica site, together with other components which had reached the Metalchem Opole and Stettin harbors.
Further information is available at here, here, here, and here.