Great Istanbul Tunnel


The Great Istanbul Tunnel is a proposed multi-use highway and railway undersea tunnel in Istanbul, Turkey to cross the Bosphorus strait.

Project

The project was officially announced by Prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on 27 February 2015. The tunnel, in length and in diameter, will consist of three levels, two levels for road traffic and one level for rail system. It will be under the sea level. Situated between Gayrettepe on the European side and Küçüksu on the Asian side, it will integrate the highways between the three airports of the city, Istanbul Atatürk Airport, Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Istanbul New Airport, and the nine rail lines of the Istanbul Metro. The three bridges over the Bosphorus, Bosphorus Bridge, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, will be linked together through the tunnel. The cost of the project will amount to US$3.5 billion. The financing of the construction will be on the build–operate–transfer basis.

Construction

The RV Fugro Scout, a Singapore-flagged research/survey vessel of length and beam, started soil survey works in Bosphorus on 28 July 2017 in order to determine the exact tunnel route.