During the construction of the second railroad track, numerous secrets of the Karst underground have been revealed. Currently, all the tunnels have already been excavated, and work is now underway on the surface, where new caves continue to be discovered. Last week, we discovered the 91st cave.
The Institute for Karst Research thoroughly examines, documents, and photographs every karst feature encountered during construction. Data collected so far indicate that the deepest cave reached a depth of 168 meters, while the longest stretched approximately 400 meters. A total of 6.3 kilometers of tunnels has been discovered, at depths of up to 2.5 kilometers.
Before construction of the second track began, it was expected that 100 smaller and 10 larger karst features would be discovered in the distinctly karst terrain where the Lokev and Beka tunnels are being built. Both of these tunnels are also the longest on the route, each exceeding six kilometers in length.
Of all the caves discovered so far, 14 were found in the surface section of the route, 52 in the T1–Lokev tunnel, and 25 in the T2–Beka tunnel.