Izmir Metropolitan Municipality is preparing to open the 2,2 kilometer viaduct stage, which will connect Buca Onat Tunnel, which will connect Buca and Bornova uninterruptedly, to the bus station and ring road, on 7 May. Work is progressing rapidly in the tunnel phase of the project, which is planned to be completed in 2025.
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality continues its work on the Buca Onat Tunnel, which will ease the city traffic by reducing the distance between Konak and Bornova to 10 minutes. Within the scope of the works carried out by the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Department of Science Affairs, the 2,2-kilometer viaduct stage, which will provide the ring road connection over the bus station, is planned to be put into use on May 7, 2023. Tunnel construction continues rapidly.
Hamdi Ziya Aydın, Head of the Department of Science Affairs of Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, gave information about the works and said, “The 7,1-kilometer Buca Onat Tunnel, one of the most important stages of the transit road, which starts from the Konak Tunnel and ends at the bus station viaducts, started in 2017. However, due to increasing costs, the job was terminated at the request of the contractor firm. Although the tender was held again in 2021, the decision was awaited after the objections made to the Public Procurement Authority for about a year. Despite the resumption of work in April 2022, we faced the court process again in November 2022 and had to stop the work. After the final decision of the Council of State, we started working again in April 2023. "After the final decision made at the moment, there are no obstacles in front of us," he said.
“We plan to complete it in the first half of 2025”
Stating that the works continue on a 4/7 basis, day and night, in 24 tubes in the direction of Buca and Bornova, Aydın said, “We have opened a 2,5-meter tunnel section of the 750-kilometer route. We also opened the 150-meter part of the left tube. Within the scope of these works, we are planning to open the viaduct part, which is one of the important stages of the 7,1 kilometer transit road work, on 7 May. Then, we plan to complete other works including tunnel works and connection roads and open this road to the service of our citizens in the first half of 2025. Within the scope of the works, we have three emergency entry points connecting the two tubes. We have completed the first pass at the 650th meter of this in the direction of Buca. This will allow us to carry out our work faster.”
“Travel time will decrease from 45 minutes to 10 minutes”
Expressing that there will be a great relief in İzmir traffic with the commissioning of the project, Aydın said, “With this road project, a citizen coming from the airport will be able to reach the northern parts of the city quickly by using this transit road without entering the city traffic. Passengers coming from the northern region will be able to reach districts such as the airport and Çeşme by coming from the bus station. Thus, the travel time from 45 minutes will be reduced to 10 minutes.