Key road to be closed for over one year in Istanbul's busy Mecidiyeköy

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

 A key road in the central Mecidiyeköy neighborhood of Istanbul will be closed starting from March 5 as part of metro construction work in the area, which is expected to last 410 days and add even more traffic to the already busy spot. 

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality announced on March 3 that due to the construction work on the Kabataş-Beşiktaş-Mecidiyeköy-Mahmutbey metro lines, the construction site of the new Mecidiyeköy station would be closed to traffic and a “temporary traffic circulation project” would go into effect as of March 5, starting from 11 p.m. to ease traffic. 

As part of the project, partial lane reduction on Büyükdere Street in the Şişli-Mecidiyeköy direction will be removed as the vehicle traffic on this route will be increased from two to three lanes while the sidewalk will be widened from four meters to eight meters. In the Mecidiyeköy-Şişli direction, traffic circulation will be running on two lanes on parts of Bahçeler Street extending from Ortaklar Street to Aytekin Kotil Street.

Vehicles on the Mecidiyeköy Yolu Street will be able to reach the Şişli side of Büyükdere Street by taking an access road under the D-100 highway. A traffic light at the conjunction between Aytekin Kotil Street and Büyükdere Street will be installed to help drivers.

When the construction is finished, a passenger underpass that serves transfers to and from the metrobus and metro under Büyükdere Street will be enlarged into a sub-concourse. During this construction, metrobus commuters can transfer to the metro crossing Büyükdere Street above ground. 

Kabataş-Beşiktaş-Mecidiyeköy-Mahmutbey metro line is 24.5 kilometers long and consists of 18 stations, namely Kabataş, Beşiktaş, Darphane, Mecidiyeköy, Çağlayan, Kağıthane, Nurtepe, Alibeyköy, Yeşilpınar, Veysel Karani, Akşemsettin, Kazım Karabekir, Yenimahalle, Karadeniz Mahallesi, Tekstilkent, (Depo), Yüzyıl Mahallesi, Göztepe and Mahmutbey.

Mecidiyeköy-Mahmutbey line will be able to carry 70,000 passengers hourly and one million passengers daily in one direction. The Mecidiyeköy station will be the biggest transfer station of this line, which will be then integrated to the 16.7 kilometers-long, 10-station Mahmutbey-Halkalı-Bahçeşehir-Esenyurt metro. The metro project was prepared by the Transportation Planning Bureau, which works under the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Transportation Office Directorate. Its construction is being undertaken by the Rail Systems Directorate.