FSM bridge repair ends in İstanbul

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Hürriyet photo

Maintenance work on Istanbul’s cross-continental Fatih Sultan Mehmet (FSM) Bridge is now complete, and the bridge’s closed lanes were reopened to traffic yesterday.

The bridge’s reopening will alleviate a traffic crisis that has been ongoing since June 18. The repair work went on 24 hours a day in three shifts. All of the bridge’s eight lanes were closed to traffic in pairs by turns.

Transportation Ministry Undersecretary Mehmet Habip Soluk was on hand to supervise the last of the work on the bridge and to answer questions from the press.

“On August 21 at 5.20 P.M., the repair work was completed. Paving work on the European side-bound span was finished at 5:20 a.m. The temperature [of the pavement] is about 240 degrees Celsius now; we will wait until it goes down to the ambient temperature. When it cools, by noon on Aug. 22, we will pick up our barriers, pipes, and electric cables from the bridge and open it to traffic in the evening,” Soluk said.

Istanbul residents have had to endure major traffic chaos since the morning of June 18, when the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge over the Bosphorus and the Haliç Bridge over the Golden Horn were partially closed for repair work for two months.