The Eurasia Tunnel (Avrasya Tüneli), the first ever road tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, opened on December 20, with the attendance of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım.
The tunnel opened to service early on December 21 for a TRY 15 (USD 4.2) entrance fee until the beginning of 2017.
The 3.34-km tunnel crossing under the sea, which is also dubbed as the “Istanbul Straight Road Crossing Project,” will connect the two continents for a second time under the water.
The total distance of the tunnel will be 5.4 kilometers, 3.34 kilometers of which will be under the sea.
Together with access roads, the Eurasia Tunnel Project’s total distance will be 14.6 kilometers. At its deepest point, the tunnel will be 106.4 meters below the surface of the Bosphorus Strait.
Officials say the Eurasia Tunnel will provide a solution to Istanbul’s traffic problems by decreasing travel times on the route from around 100 minutes to 15 minutes between the Kazlıçeşme district on the European side and the Göztepe district on the Asian side.
In 2015, The government in Ankara announced a new mega project in order to find solution to Istanbul’s busy traffic, which is building a three-story, sub-sea tunnel including a metro line and dual motorway. The third tunnel is estimated to cost USD 3.5 billion.
The former Minister of Transport, Lutfi Elvan, said that the undersea tunnel will be constructed with a “build-operate-transfer model” — a form public-private-partnership scheme — so “the state will not pay a single penny.”
The tunnel will integrate local metro lines of Istanbul including Başakşehir-Bağcılar-Bakırköy Metro, Yenikapı-Aksaray-Airport Metro, Kabataş-Bağcılar Tram, Topkapı-Sultançifliği Light Metro, Mahmutbey-Mecidiyeköy Metro, Yenikapı-Hacıosman Metro (Taksim Metro), Üsküdar-Ümraniye-Çekmeköy-Sancaktepe Metro, Kadıköy-Kartal Metro, Marmaray, Istanbul’s first sub-sea tunnel train under Bosporus, and Suburban train lines.
More important to mention is that in 2013 Istanbul inaugurated Marmaray rail tunnel, under the Bosphorus Strait, which also connects the European and the Asian parts of Turkey.
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway corridor, which is set to be put in commercial service in the first quarter of 2017,will also have a rail connection with the Marmaray tunnel.
Photo: Proposed triple-deck road and metro bored tunnel
http://www.tunneltalk.com
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