Mount Bolu Tunnel

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Mount Bolu Tunnel (Turkish: Bolu Dağı Tüneli) is a 2.9 km long highway tunnel being constructed through the Bolu Mountain in Turkey. After much delays the Istanbul-Ankara direction (2788m) is opened to traffic on January 23rd 2007 by the Turkish and Italian PM's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Romano Prodi. Two months following the initial opening, on May 7th, the Ankara-Istanbul (2954m) became operational.

The tunnel is built as part of the Gümüşova-Gerede Highway within the Trans European Motorway project by the Turkish Bayındır and Italian Astaldi joint venture since April 16, 1993. The total cost of the tunnel is about US$300 million. It has twin bores, 17 m wide and will accommodate three lanes of traffic in each direction. The tube is in Istanbul-Ankara direction 2,871 m long and in the other direction 2,954 m.

The tunnel crosses the North Anatolian Fault and the November 12, 1999 Düzce earthquake (MW=7.2) caused substantial damage to the tunnel and viaducts, which were under construction at the time of the earthquake.

[edit] Construction Progress

On September 4, 2005 the excavation for the tunnel tube in Istanbul-Ankara direction is finished.
The excavation for the tunnel in Istanbul direction is finished in the beginning of August 2005.