e-mosty March 2019 Long Span and Multiple Span Bridges | Page 8

INTRODUCTION LOCATION OF THE BRIDGE
Turkey serves as an important crossing between
Asia and Europe. Its rapid economic growth
together with increased number of tourists,
agriculture and transit transport has led to chronic
traffic congestion. The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge (in Turkish 1915
Çanakkale Köprüsü) is located 200km southwest of
Istanbul, spanning the Dardanelles Strait, which
connects Lapseki District to the Gelibolu District
(Gallipoli).
The existing transportation network cannot
accommodate all demands arising from the traffic
growth. The strait forms a natural division between Europe
and Asia and it connects the Marmara Sea with the
Aegean and Mediterranean seas, as can be seen in
Figures 2 and 3.
To address these problems, the Turkish
Government announced the Vision 2023
programme, which aims to increase the road, rail
and sea transport capacities.
Part of the programme is a new suspension bridge
across the Dardanelles which is expected to
improve the transportation network on the west
side of the country, promote socio-economic
growth and tourism.
In particular it will provide an alternative route for
European traffic to and from Izmir, Turkey’s 3 rd
largest city, avoiding Istanbul.
The bridge with its main span of 2,023m is going to
be the longest span suspension bridge in the world
when it opens to traffic.
The bridge forms central part of the 321km long
Kınalı -Balıkesir Highway, which will connect the O-3
and O-6 highways in East Thrace to the O-5 highway
in Anatolia.
The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge is part of the
programme, which expands earlier major
transportation projects such as the Gebze-
Orhangazi-Izmir Highway with the Osmangazi
Bridge.
The project is expected to increase capacity,
improve traffic flow and ease the present and
future congestion problems.
Figure 2: Location of the bridge on the map
Source: Google Maps
1/2019