As of mid -October, 2710 meters of the Karavanke Tunnel on the Slovenian side has been excavated, leaving around 735 meters to the breakthrough point. This is the second tube construction to the already existing Karavanke Tunnel.

Original breakthrough date was September 2023, but now it is estimated in the first 3rd of 2024, likely in early spring. The reason for the breakthrough delay is the difficult geological situation on the Slovenian side, which is much more challenging than that of the Austrian side. So much so that, when 30 years ago the existing tunnel was being built, the Slovenian side took longer time to build.

Total length of this new tube of the Karavanke Tunnel is in total 8 kilometers. 3,5 Kilometers of it is on the Slovenian side (built by CENGIZ) and the 4,5 kilometer is on the Austrian side.

The building of the Slovenian side for the second tube has been also delayed by tender process. CENGIZ had been awarded for the 120 million euro Karavanke second tunnel contract by DARS (Slovenian state-owned Road Company)  after a lengthy process. The first tender which was also awarded to Cengiz had been cancelled after some objections by the loosing contractors Slovenian builder Kolektor CPG,  Bosnia's Euro-Asfalt and its Slovenian partner Cestno Podjetje Ptujm.

Then Cengiz won also the second tender, but this time coronavirus struck.

https://www.rtvslo.si/gospodarstvo/do-avstrijske-strani-se-okoli-700-metrov-preboj-druge-cevi-predora-karavanke-predviden-spomladi/685913