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Istanbul’s twin-decked tunnel beneath the sea opens to traffic

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Marina Miceli Marina Miceli Europe Press Office,London
22 December 2016

Arup joined clients Yapi Merkezi İnşaat Ve Sanayi A.Ş and SK Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. to celebrate the official opening of the Eurasia Tunnel to the public.

Also known as the Istanbul Strait Road Tube Crossing, the 5.4km long crossing, which includes 3.4km of twin-decked road running beneath the Bosphorus seabed along with 9.2km of approach road improvements on both sides of the Bosphorus, will connect two continents and the European and Asian sides of Istanbul, Turkey.

Arup has been working on the award-winning project since 2009 providing technical advisory, environmental monitoring and traffic audit services to the institutions funding the project during the procurement and construction stages.

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100,000 vehicles per day will be using the Tunnel comfortably without being affected from the weather conditions outside. We will from now on be ignoring all those news articles such as 'the ferries stop operation due to the storm', 'the traffic stops on the bridge due to fog', etc. Thanks to the Eurasia Tunnel, uninterrupted land transport between the two sides of Istanbul has become possible independently from the climate conditions outside. ” Recep Tayyip Erdogan President Turkey

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We are very proud to have been associated with the delivery of this major road tunnel project which is the first intercontinental road tunnel in the world. This important connection brings two continents together, reduces congestion in and around Istanbul and improves the journey times between Kazlıçeşme and Göztepe. ” Nigel Hailey Director, Global Highways Leader

For more information, visit the Eurasia Tunnel site.