Tauern Autobahn

The Tauern Autobahn (A 10) is an autobahn (motorway) in Austria. It starts at the Salzburg junction with the Westautobahn (A1), runs southwards, crosses the Niedere Tauern mountain range and leads to the Süd Autobahn (A2) and Karawanken Autobahn (A11) at Villach in Carinthia.

It is 192 km (119 miles) long, 24 km (15 miles) of which are in 12 tunnels. The best known of these are the Tauern Tunnel and the Katschberg Tunnel that both have a single bore. A second bore is under construction. Other than the general Austrian motorway speed limit of 130 km/h (81 mph) a special environmental speed limit of 110 km/h (68 mph) is set between 10:00 PM and 5:00 AM.

The initial sections of the motorway south of Salzburg and near Spittal an der Drau were built between 1939 and the cessation of construction works in 1942 due to World War II, and were not resumed until 1968. The difficult crossing of the Central Eastern Alps started in 1971. On May 16, 1975 within the section between Gmünd and Spittal a newly built bridge collpased, killing ten workers. The A10 motorway was completed in 1988.

Tolls

The sections between the Flachauwinkel and Rennweg junctions including the Tauern and Katschberg Tunnels are a so-called special toll route. In this area instead of the general vignette requirement, extra tolls ("Maut") are paid in cash or by credit card at the toll plaza at Sankt Michael or via a "Videomaut" prepaid system. For driving on all other sections of the A10 the standard vignette is required.

ee also

*Autobahns of Austria

References