Cankurtaran Tunnel is being built as an alternative to Cankurtaran Passage in the province of Artvin, which links the Black Sea to Iran, to relieve difficulties in snowy and icy conditions.
The construction process of Cankurtaran tunnel – which will connect the Black Sea to Iran as an alternative way to existing Cankurtaran passage – has approached the end of construction. Drilling works that were finished, concreting processes of Cankurtaran Tunnel have come to end in order to ease winter traffic conditions which are nightmare of drivers on the highway that connect Black Sea to Iran.
Having made its groundbreaking late 2010 and completed its drilling process last year, concreting processes of the tunnel in both sides of traffic including going and coming are continuing. Length of the both tunnels are nearly 10 thousand 400 meters, while concreting works of tunnels have been carried out in the length of 8 thousand meters, the rest part of 2 thousand 400 meters are aimed to be completed in a short time. So, drivers will breathe easily on the highway which is seen a nightmare regarding snowy and icy period in the winter conditions along with the district of Cankurtaran extending to Hopa-Artvin highways.
Kemal Cirit, governor of Artvin province in his statement said, Cankurtaran Tunnels are being constructed in the length of 5,200 meters one each including both sides as going and coming between the districts of Hopa and Borcka. When construction is finished the tunnel will be one of the longest highway tunnels of Turkey, meanwhile Ovit Tunnel in the province of Rize of which construction will be completed later will leave behind this tunnel in terms of length, he added. “Drilling processes of the Cankurtaran tunnel finished in March 2014. Until today, 8 thousand 400 meters of the tunnel were concreted; the rest part is continuing. I hope we will open the tunnel for vehicle traffic as of the end of this year.” When the tunnel is finished the transportation will be shrunk 12 kilometers between Artvin and Hopa provinces. The tunnel will connect the Black Sea to Iran via the eastern province of Erzurum.