Repair and renovation works in the Anatolian Highway Bolu Mountain Tunnel, where transportation was interrupted due to landslides during the year, were completed and the tunnel was opened to vehicle traffic.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said, “We prevented a possible landslide from negatively affecting transportation. "We increased the tunnel length to 3 thousand 115 meters," he said.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu made on-site inspections of the Bolu Mountain Tunnel, whose construction works were completed, received information from the authorities, and then made statements about the works carried out. Uraloğlu started his speech by making a reminder. Uraloğlu said, “If you remember, the negative effects of heavy rains in July this year; We lived in almost the entire Black Sea Region such as Düzce, Zonguldak, Bartın, Karabük, Ordu and Giresun. Now, climate change and the problems it causes have become a common issue for humanity. In those days, we said that we would discuss what we needed to do to prevent such disasters from happening again, that we would make more radical decisions, and that we would increase the measures through the determinations we would make with technical staff. "One of the most important of these measures and works was undoubtedly the Bolu Mountain crossing, and I am pleased to state that we have completed our work," he said.
WE INCREASED THE TUNNEL LENGTH TO 3 THOUSAND 115 METERS
Uraloğlu stated that they started the work by closing the Bolu Mountain passage of the Anatolian Highway, which provides transportation between Istanbul and Ankara, to traffic in the Ankara direction on Monday, September 25, 2023, and that they carried out very important works in the 23-kilometer section, including the Bolu Tunnel between Kaynaşlı-Abant Junctions. Uraloğlu shared the following information about the work done:
“We extended the 3-meter tunnel portal on the platform that provides access to the Ankara direction of the highway by 25 meters as steel construction. We increased the total length of the tunnel to 90 thousand 3 meters. Thus, we prevented a possible landslide that may occur by extending the tunnel portal from adversely affecting transportation. Again, we replaced 115 joints in 3 viaducts and applied liquid membrane on the joints. We also renewed the concrete barriers in the central median for 5 kilometers. Hopefully, from now on, we will not experience any of the negative situations we have experienced before in this region during a possible heavy rain period. "We will not see any traffic interruption at the Bolu Mountain crossing for these reasons."
Minister Uraloğlu stated that they attach great importance to the development of Bolu's transportation network as it is an important transition point between Istanbul and Ankara, and that they have invested more than 21 Billion Liras in the transportation and communication infrastructure of Bolu in the last 30 years, and increased the length of the divided road from 173 kilometers to 301 kilometers, and bituminous roads. announced that they increased the length of the hot coating road from 192 kilometers to 428 kilometers.
WE WILL OFFICIALLY OPEN THE BOLU SOUTH RING ROAD
Uraloğlu said that they will reduce the transit burden of Bolu, regulate the traffic, and will officially open the Southern Ring Road very soon. Regarding the ring road, Uraloğlu said, “We will reduce the transportation time on the route, which takes 15 minutes by stop-and-go with signalized intersections on the existing road, to 2 minutes with our ring road. We will save a total of 88 million lira annually, including 22 million lira from time and 110 million lira from fuel. "We will also reduce carbon emissions by 2,7 tons," he said.
CENTRAL ANATOLIAN HIGHWAY PROJECT
Uraloğlu stated that they are planning to build the Central Anatolian Highway and said, “Our current highway, which provides transportation between Ankara and Istanbul, is used intensively throughout the year. Travel demand is constantly increasing due to reasons such as population growth and the increase in tourism and trade activities. There is a very serious traffic density, especially in the Gerede section, where traffic from Ankara and the Black Sea direction meets. We eased the congestion between Istanbul and Akyazı with the last section of the Northern Marmara Highway, which we put into service last year. "We are now planning to build the Central Anatolian Highway in the section of the route between Akyazı and Ankara," he said.
Regarding the Central Anatolian Highway to be built, Uraloğlu said that it will have a total length of 225 kilometers, of which 51 kilometers will be the main body and 276 kilometers will be the connection road. Noting that they plan to serve traffic with a total of 3 lanes, 3 departures and 6 arrivals, Uraloğlu said, “We will establish a faster connection between the Central Anatolian Highway and the Northern Marmara Highway to the Ankara-Niğde Highway. We will also have built a second alternative road for disasters and emergencies. "I wholeheartedly believe that, like these projects, the implementation of our Central Anatolian Highway project will make a significant contribution to increasing the trade and production potential of the settlements around the route," he said.
Uraloğlu completed the press release with the words, "We will continue to work tirelessly, devotedly and seriously to establish the transportation infrastructure necessary for our country's economy to achieve the Turkish Century targets."