$2.6B Canakkale bridge project attracts 4 bid groups

Construction of the bridge over the Dardanelles due to start this March and conclude by 2023, Turkey's centennial

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's highways authority has gotten bids from four international consortiums to build, operate, and maintain a new 10 billion Turkish lira ($2.61 billion) suspension bridge over the Dardanelles (Canakkale) Strait, the authority said Thursday.

The construction of the Canakkale 1915 bridge, spanning over 2,000 meters between Lapseki and Gelibolu in the northwestern Canakkale province, is set to start by March 18 and open in 2023 when the country marks the centennial of the Republic of Turkey, according to the country's Transport Ministry.

"Whoever gives the shortest time for the construction will win the bid," said Sefer Tirman, the head of the General Highways Directorate (KGM) and chairman of the bid committee.

Some 24 companies are competing to win the project.

Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Turkey has been working to build giant infrastructure projects across the country to boost economic growth, including Istanbul’s third airport with a capacity up to 200 million passengers a year.

In 2015, Turkey raised the bar with the financial closure of seven projects totaling a record $44.7 billion, according to the World Bank Group.

A total of four mega-projects are currently under construction: Istanbul’s third airport, the Gebze-Halkali commuter train link in Istanbul, the Ovit tunnel in northeastern Anatolia, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway.

Last year Turkey opened a third bridge over the Bosphorus Strait (the Yavuz Sultan Bridge, named for a 16th century sultan known for his expansion of the Ottoman Empire), plus the world’s fourth-longest suspension bridge over Izmit Bay (the Osman Gazi Bridge), and the Eurasia Tunnel, which is an underground road tunnel linking Istanbul’s European and Asian sides.

The following are the four consortiums bidding for the build-operate-transfer (BOT) project:

1. Daelim (South Korea) - Limak - SK (South Korea) - Yapi Merkezi OGG (Turkey)

2. IHI (Japan) - Itochu (Japan) - Join (Japan) – Makyol (Turkey) – Nurol (Turkey) - Japon Express Way (Japan) OGG

3. Cengiz (Turkey) - Kolin (Turkey) - CRBC (China) OGG

4. IC Ictas (Turkey) - Astaldi (Italia) OGG

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