Turkey set to hold tender for second Bosphorus undersea tunnel
Posted by meb at January 9th, 2008
Turkey is set to hold another tender in March for a second undersea tunnel to connect Europe and Asia beneath the sea level.
Four years after launching a grounbreaking engineering project to build the world’s deepest immersed tunnel which will make possible a rail link for a rapid transit system under the Bosphorus, Turkey is set to hold another tender in March for a second undersea tunnel to connect Europe and Asia beneath the sea level.
The tender was originally scheduled to be held in January but Turkish transport authorities have decided to postpone it until March 17 to give time to prospective bidders to run necessary geo-technical work in conformity with international standards. After the completion, drivers will pay 4 USD for one-way passage and 8 USD for a round trip use of the 5.4 kilometer two-storey, four-lane tunnel.
The construction of the tunnel is expected to be completed in three years.
The first project called “Marmaray” will connected the European and Asian regions of Istanbul a tunnel which is constructed under bosphorous. Construction of the Marmaray project started in May 2004. Its completion, expected to occur in 2012, is projected to increase the fraction of trips in Istanbul made by rail transport from 3.6 percent to 27.7 percent. If this takes place, Istanbul’s rail transport fraction will be third largest in the world, after Tokyo (60%) and New York City (31%).
source: The New Anatolian
Related posts: