The railway bridge near Telgárt in central Slovakia was the first dissected arched structure made of iron-concrete in Czechoslovak railways. The tunnel of Kornel Stodola not far away from the bridge is the only spiral-shaped tunnel in Slovakia.
Both structures are part of the railway track Červená Skala-Margecany. The interesting thing about this track is that ascending 12 kilometres it overcomes the altitude difference of 172 m in a complicated terrain.
The railway track starts with a original design of loop-shaped tunnel near Telgárt, it continues via an attractively looking viaduct through another two tunnels and then it reaches the highest point in the second tunnel called Besnícky – i.e. at the sea level altitude of 957 metres. It is the highest situated spot of our normal track gauge railway.
The tunnel of Kornel Stodola is 1,239.6 m long and it is built as a bow with radius of 400 m. It starts next to the stop Telgárt, and turns about approximately 180° in helix form. Then the track continues by viaduct another 22 metres higher and beyond it ascends again additional 31 metres. Its following trajectory is spiral-shaped. It is also called the spiral of Telgárt. The original length of the track was 107 km and the loop shortened it by about 93 km.
The viaduct of Telgárt was built in 1931 on the track with inclination of 17 ‰. The bridge is 22 metres high in its centres and 86,2 metres long; , 3 570 m3 of masonry was used in its construction.
Source: Vydavateľstvo Dajama
