Murovdağ tunnel project reaches 65% completion milestone
Ulviyya Shahin
Read moreThe construction of the Toganali-Kalbajar-Istisu highway connecting Goygol and Kalbajar regions and the Murovdag tunnel, which will be one of the longest car tunnels in the world, will be completed in 2025-2026, Azernews reports.
Akif Aygen, the deputy chairman of the Board of Directors of the Turkish company "Proyapı", which carries out construction works in the territories freed from occupation.
According to him, 65% of the work on the tunnel has been completed.
It should be noted that the project length of the Toganali-Kalbajar-Istisu highway connecting Goygol and Kalbajar regions is 80.7 km. The highway is built according to the 1st and 2nd technical grades with 2-4 traffic lanes.
Considering the rugged, mountainous, and rocky terrain of the project area, the main part of the road is designed to be of the second technical grade, with two lanes in each direction and additional lanes on ascents.
It is planned to build 4 traffic lanes according to the 1st technical grade in the sections with tunnels and bridges.
The Toğanalı-Kalbajar-Istisu highway construction project is being built, passing through Toğanalı village in Goygol district.
From the 16th km section of the project, the Murovdag ridge begins, and the altitude increases from 1,900 m to 3,250 m to the top of Murovdag.
If the existing road is to be used, there are extreme slip zones. Even if foundation-based retaining walls are built in addition to the windings (serpentine) to be built in these areas, safe operation of the road may not be possible in the winter season in heavy snow and frosty weather conditions. Due to the presence of hard rocks in the region, the mobility of construction equipment is also limited in the area where the road is being built. When using the existing road, the same difficulties arise when descending from the top of Murovdag. The slope on the road varies between 16-28%.
If the road is constructed with a gradient of 7%, it would require extending the existing 16.5 km road by approximately 15 km on serpentine roads. Therefore, instead of constructing a 31.5 km road on difficult terrain, it is considered more feasible to pass this section under the Murovdağ mountain range with an 11.7 km tunnel. The tunnel will have two lanes in each direction and will be 12 metres wide.
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