Izmit-Akyazi is the last section of 398.4 kilometres of Northern Marmara Motorway built on Istanbul, Kocaeli and Sakarya lines; the section will be opened on December 19. The Northern Marmara Motorway Project, which will facilitate Istanbul’s access to surrounding provinces and other regions, was implemented by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, General Directorate of Highways, with a build-operate-transfer model. The project, which starts from Kinali location in the west of Istanbul, passes Kocaeli and Sakarya to the north and ends near Akyazi district of Sakarya, consists of 3 main sections.
The work on the Odayeri-Pasakoy section of the Northern Marmara Motorway, which aims to alleviate the burden of the existing system with a new highway network in Istanbul, which is an intercontinental passage, started in May 2013 and in the Kinali-Odayeri and Kurtkoy-Akyazi sections in July 2016.
31.2 million tons of superstructure was manufactured
Approximately 12.4 million tons of hot asphalt was laid, 18.8 million tons of cold mix was manufactured, 11.5 million cubic meters of concrete were used in the whole project, which has a total length of 398.4 kilometres.
10 tunnels, 69 viaducts, 409 bridges were built
The project includes 10 tunnels of 35 thousand 23 meters, 69 viaducts of 56 thousand 69 meters, 409 bridges and 818 culverts. 3 tunnels, 14 viaducts, 96 bridges (underpass and overpass), 118 culverts located in the Kinali-Odayeri section of the motorway; 5 tunnels, 16 viaducts, 192 bridges (underpass and overpass) and 431 culverts located in the Kurtkoy-Akyazi section; 2 tunnels, 39 viaducts, 121 bridges (underpass and overpass) and 269 culverts located in Odayeri-Pasakoy section.
Starting from Kinali location of Istanbul, the project ends near Akyazi district of Sakarya, it is one of the Turkey’s largest transport investment. It was implemented in order to reduce the traffic density in the city and on the existing Bosporus bridges and to ensure the transit of vehicles in a controlled, high standard, uninterrupted, safe and comfortable manner without entering urban traffic.
The Northern Marmara Motorway is the most important road to reach Istanbul Airport, one of the world’s largest airports.
Project will provide new transportation alternatives for Marmara Region
The Northern Marmara Motorway, which directly accesses large-scale organized industrial zones in Istanbul and Kocaeli, will also provide integration between the road and rail transport modes with Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which is designed in accordance with the passage of high-speed trains and freight trains.
It will be possible for goods and services to easily enter economic life around the motorway with the connection roads and intersections to the industrial zones and densely populated areas along the route. In this way, the number of cities that can reach Istanbul and Europe quickly will increase, and a great contribution will be made to regional economic development.
The project will be one of the most important components of the highway ring to be established around the Marmara Region when it is connected to the Kınalı-Tekirdağ-Çanakkale-Savaştepe Highway in the future and will offer new transportation alternatives for Istanbul and Marmara Region, which are the locomotives of the Eurasia region.
The project is designed as a 4-lane road for round trips, and includes the world’s largest highway tunnels. Akyazi-Kurtkoy is 4 thousand 325 meters in length and located in the T-2 tunnel of Turkey’s longest highway tunnel. While 17 thousand people were employed during the peak period of the project, 8 thousand 700 people continue to work at various levels. Thanks to the high-tech smart transportation systems within the highway, the entire route can be monitored 24 hours a day and possible incidents can be intervened.
Kinali-Yassioren (Section-1) section of the highway put into service on March 8 2020, while Yassioren-Odayeri (Section-2) section on November 13 2018, Odayeri-Kurtkoy (Section-3) section on August 26 2016, Kurtkoy-Liman (Section-4) section on March 19 2019 and Liman-Izmit (Section-5) section on September 19 2020.
The entire project, extending from Istanbul Kinali to Sakarya Akyazi, will be put into service with a ceremony to be held for Izmit-Akyazi Junction (Section-6) on Saturday, December 19.
Some structures on the project stand out in terms of their engineering
Some special structures within the Northern Marmara Motorway attract attention in terms of engineering. Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, designed as a combination of suspension bridge and inclined suspension bridge, is a milestone in world engineering history. The bridge is the longest rail system in the world with a main span of 1408 meters, and the tallest tower in the world with a tower height of 322 meters. The bridge, where the road and railway lanes cross at the same level, has an aesthetically striking design.
10 double-tube tunnels with 4 lanes on the highway stand out as Europe’s widest cross-section tunnels. 69 viaducts within the project, with a total length of over 56 kilometres in both directions, were built using various construction techniques. During the construction of the said viaducts, methods such as pushing-sliding, moving scaffold system and balanced cantilever were used, different from conventional methods.
The V07 viaduct (Ismail Sekban), built in the Gebze region, is also among the highest pedestal viaducts in the country with a height of 131 meters.
source: AA / translated by Melisa Karayusufoglu