Marko Brezigar, Director of 2TDK, participated in a roundtable discussion as part of the GZS conference titled “Why Are There Major Problems with the Implementation of Environmental Impact Assessments and the Issuance of Integrated Environmental Permits for Construction Projects?”, where the discussion focused on how to untangle the Gordian knot of complications in the procedures for issuing OVS, IGD, and other OVDs.
At the expert conference, several experts presented an analysis of the current state of procedures for preparing environmental impact assessments and obtaining environmental permits. They also discussed where the greatest delays occur, what the key causes are, and what challenges the integrated process of issuing building permits for structures with environmental impacts entails. The roles of investors, decision-makers, preparers of technical documentation, consultants, and non-governmental organizations were also presented.
In his contribution to the roundtable, 2TDK Director Marko Brezigar presented the second-track project and emphasized that 2TDK is also responsible for the construction of the parallel left track, for which an integrated building permit will be obtained.
He went into detail about the challenges we are facing on the project. Among them are large karst caves, which required the construction of bridges in the tunnels—a unique engineering challenge. He also discussed the landslide in the Glinščica Valley, which led to the formation of a special crisis team to find technical solutions and halt the landslide. “Additional surveys, detailed design projects, pilot work beneath the Glinščica gallery, and the anchoring of one section of the slope have already been carried out; however, the construction of six wells will still be required to stabilize the terrain. We are currently looking for a contractor for the wells,” Brezigar said, announcing that construction of the first two wells is scheduled to begin in January 2026.
Because Marko Brezigar was, in the 1990s, the responsible project manager for the construction of the Puconci–Hodoš–state border railway line with Hungary—still the only functional railway line built in independent Slovenia—he also presented numerous positive experiences from that period at the round table. He pointed out that at that time they compared procedures between Slovenia and Hungary and found that the processes were almost completely the same, except that Hungary had an interministerial expert group at the ministerial level that monitored the spatial planning and siting of important national projects.
Participants on the sidelines of the event highlighted the importance of such professional meetings, and some of them also cited examples of good practices from which we can all learn a great deal.
