Bridge over Bosphorus will serve with half capacity

ISTANBUL

Istanbulites could see more traffic bottlenecks on the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge during an upcoming road maintenance project.

Construction crews will close half of the bridge to traffic during the project, which begins June 27.

The project to replace the asphalt coating on the bridge - one of the three Bosphorus Strait bridges connecting Asia with Europe - is expected to take 50 days, the General Directorate for Highways said in a statement on June 24.

Regular maintenance work will be carried out on “the Bosphorus bridges, which are vital to Istanbul’s transportation, in order to provide safe, comfortable and durable service,” read the statement.

The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge is a 30-year old suspension structure spanning between Istanbul’s districts of Beykoz on the Asian side and Sarıyer on the European side.

The work will continue for 24 hours a day in three shifts and in two phases, which are planned to start on June 27 and to finish on Aug. 17, according to the directorate’s statement.

During the first phase of the maintenance works, four lanes on the southern section of the bridge in the Europe-Asia direction will be closed, bringing down the number of lanes to two in each direction.

The second phase, which will take place in the northern section, is expected to cause traffic congestion in the Asia-Europe direction.

Nearly 170,000 vehicles on average crossed the bridge every day in 2018, official data shows.