Historic road project to link Black Sea ports to Med Sea

ORDU

Turkey will soon have a giant motorway project that will directly link the Black Sea and Mediterranean coasts of Turkey with a route that will negotiate mountains via 28 tunnels. 

The 600-kilometer road will be finished by 2017, daily Milliyet quoted Murat Camadan, the head of the Black Sea Businesspeople Association (KAİAD), as saying.

An 88-kilometer part of the road, which starts in the Black Sea province of Ordu, will be finished this year, Camadan said. 

The road will end up in İskenderun, a Turkish port city on the Mediterranean Sea. 

“There is only a little time to realize a 140-year-old dream,” he said referring to the roots of the project that first emerged during the rule of Ottoman Sultan Abdülhamid II. 

The road will have an impact on 40 provinces, connecting southern and northern Turkey to give a boost to domestic and international trade, he said. 

When the side and additional roads included, the project will expand to nearly 12,000 kilometers. 
“This will improve the trade between Turkish provinces,” Camadan said. 

The fundamental work for the construction of nearly 10,000 kilometers of tie-in roads has already been completed, according to Turkey’s motorways authority. 

The Transport Ministry has already made projects for 17 connection roads. 

The road will ease the transport of citrus produce from the Mediterranean Sea coastal provinces such as Antalya and Mersin to Black Sea ports, from which goods can be exported to Ukraine.