Sabuncubeli Tunnel 2.5

The Sabuncubeli Tunnel is a road tunnel under construction located on the Mount Sipylus in Aegean Region as part of the Manisa-Izmir highway in Turkey.Situated near Kocakara village in the northeast and Beşyol village of Bornova district in the southwest on the province border of Manisa and Izmir, the twin-tube tunnel is 6480m long carrying two lanes of traffic in each direction. In 2011, the Manisa-Izmir route had a daily traffic rate of 30,000 vehicles. The tunnel is being built to bypass the steep and twisty route at Sabuncubeli Pass, reducing the grade of highway from 7–8% to 1.5%. When completed, it will shorten the travel time between Manisa and Izmir from 45 minutes to 15 minutes, and will contribute to elimination of traffic congestion in the winter time.The contract for the building of the tunnel was awarded to Koçoğlu and Makimsan Consortium on the build-operate-transfer basis, and was signed on August 18, 2011. It was projected that the 2800m-long tunnel was to be finished within three years costing 110 million. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in presence of Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication Binali Yıldırım on September 9, 2011. The construction works were suspended for seven months right after the groundbreaking in order to undertake a revision in the tunnel project. The new project featured the extension of the tunnel length from initially planned 2.8km to 4070m, and a lesser road grade than of previously designed. The tunnel runs in average 150m underground with a maximum depth of 250m. Excavation works continue at a daily rate of 1.5m with a total of 150 personnel. The estimated cost was revised to 150 million.