Tender for key section of the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge postponed

While the tender for the construction of a key section of the Northern Marmara Highway Project between Kurtköy-Akyazı and Kınalı-Odayeri will be held on May 4, the tender for the access roads of this section of the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge has been postponed from March 6 to May 6. The bridge is scheduled to be completed and open to traffic this year, with all of its access roads to open by the end of 2018.

At the request of the relevant firms, it was previously decided that two separate tenders would be held on different dates for the Kurtköy-Akyazı and Kınalı-Odayeri sections - namely, the build-operate-transfer model tender for both sections of the bridge's access roads, shifting projected dates for both tenders from Aug. 31, 2015, to March 1, 2016, and Sept. 7, 2015, to March 8, 2016, respectively. However, according to an official announcement, these tenders will both be held on May 4, 2016.

The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which will be the third bridge to span Istanbul's Bosporus Strait, may be formally inaugurated this summer, according to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who visited the construction site where the bridge is nearing completion last month.

The opening of the bridge was delayed several times last year due to technical complications, but Davutoğlu ensured that the inauguration would take place this summer "barring an extraordinary situation." "About 88 percent of the project is complete, and both the bridge and the roads connected to it will hopefully be opened as soon as possible," he said.

Thousands of employees and engineers are working nonstop, 24 hours a day on its construction. The total length of the bridge, which has been under construction since 2013, is 2,164 meters.

The bridge spans 1,408 meters over water, features eight lanes of highway and two lanes of railway. It will be the longest suspension bridge in the world to feature a rail system. The height of the bridge's tower overlooking the Garipçe village on Istanbul's European side is 322 meters high, while the second tower, overlooking the Poyrazköy district on the Asian side, is 318 meters high. The bridge will be the highest in the world in terms of the height of its abutments.

The railway system spanning the bridge will run from Edirne to İzmit, be integrated with the Marmaray and Istanbul Metro lines and connected with Istanbul's Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen International airports as well as the third airport that is currently under construction.