One of Turkey’s mega projects, the Eurasia Tunnel, which allows automobiles transit access between the Asian and European sides of Istanbul under the Bosporus strait, will be transited by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in an official test drive on Saturday. President Erdogan will drive from Europe to Asia through the tunnel in his official car. The tunnel, which will reduce travel time from 100 minutes to 15 minutes, is planned to be open for public use on December 20.
The works for the 14.6 kilometer long Eurasia Tunnel, which is being built with the “build-operate-transfer model” under the responsibility of Turkish-Korean joint ATAŞ, continue at full speed. The Eurasia Tunnel, the construction of which was initiated in 2011 with an investment worth 1.25 billion dollars and is being built 106 meters under the Bosporus, is expected to be used by 100,000 vehicles per day.

The construction work on the Eurasia highway tunnel has pushed up real estate prices up in nearby districts. Like other mega infrastructure projects in Istanbul, the tunnel is expected to alleviate the heavy traffic load in the city. The existing undersea road of nearly 5.4 kilometers, including 2×3 and 3×2 lanes, will be expanded to 2×4 lanes. Two bridge crossings and a pedestrian overpass, which will also serve the disabled, will be built on the D100 highway. The existing road of nearly 3.8 kilometers will be expanded to 2×4 and 2×5 lanes from 2×3 and 2×4 lanes.