Construction of grand motorway project starts

The highest ever build-transfer-operate (BTO) project in a lump in the Turkish history, the construction of the motorway will last for around seven years and cost $6 billion. The foundation was laid by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Minister of Transportation Binali Yıldırım with the participation of the representatives from six companies, which made up a consortium.

In his speech, the PM said he doesn’t normally attend groundbreaking ceremonies as a principle, adding, however, that he was glad to appear in yesterday’s occasion for the sake of “the grand project to connect two major cities together.”

“Today we are starting one of the biggest projects of the Republic’s history. We are crowning with this project our Republic, the 87th anniversary of which we will be celebrating tomorrow, and we are virtually presenting a holiday gift to our country,” he asserted.

The motorway that will connect Gebze, of the northwestern province of İzmit, with the Aegean province of İzmir via Orhangazi, of the northwestern province of Bursa.

Although the bid specifications require the construction be finished in at most seven years, the consortium wants to complete the project in five years. PM Erdoğan also called on the consortium companies to try their best to finish the whole project in five years during Thursday’s ceremony. Last April the Motor Highways Directorate (KGM) opened a tender for the construction of the motorway and a 3-kilometer-long bridge on the İzmit Gulf and the Nurol-Özaltın-Makyol-Astaldi-Yüksel-Göçay consortium won it for a duration of 22 years and four months, including the time spent constructing the motorway.

The highway will be 420 kilometers long and the suspension bridge on the İzmit Gulf will be 3,000 meters long. Within the framework of the project, 30 viaducts, 4 tunnels, 209 bridges, 18 booths and five highway maintenance-operation centers will be constructed.