1915 Çanakkale Bridge
The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge (; pronounced Chanakkalè), also known as the Dardanelles Bridge (), is a road suspension bridge in the province of Çanakkale in northwestern Turkey. Situated just south of the coastal towns of Lapseki and Gelibolu, the bridge spans the Dardanelles strait, about south of the Sea of Marmara. The bridge was officially opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 18 March 2022 after roughly five years of construction. The year "1915" in the official Turkish name honours an important Ottoman naval victory against the British and the French during World War I. The bridge is the  longest suspension bridge in the world—with a main span of , the bridge surpasses the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (1998) in Japan by . It is the centrepiece of the planned Kınalı-Balıkesir Motorway, which will connect the O-3 and O-7 motorways in East Thrace to the O-5 motorway in Anatolia. The bridge is the first fixed crossing over the Dardanelles and the sixth one across the Turkish Straits, after three bridges over the Bosphorus and two tunnels under it. Design and cost. The bridge was designed by COWI A/S and PEC (Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants in South Korea, for cable design  and approach bridge design packages only). Arup and Aas-Jakobsen participated in the project as Independent Design Verifier (IDV). The Administrator consultants are Tekfen and T-ingénierie. The total length of the bridge is and together with the approach viaducts the length reaches , which surpasses the total length of the Osman Gazi Bridge and its approach viaducts by , to become the longest bridge of any type in Turkey. The height of the bridge's two towers is , making it the second tallest bridge in Turkey, after the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, and the third tallest structure in the country. Internationally , the bridge is the sixth tallest bridge in the world, surpassing the Sutong Bridge in China. The deck of the bridge is high and wide, with a maximum thickness of . The deck carries six lanes of motorway (three in each direction), together with two walkways on each side for maintenance. According to President Erdoğan, the bridge cost €2.5 billion ($2.7 billion) to build, but would save €415 million ($458 million) per year from a reduction of fuel consumption and carbon emissions. History. Proposals for a bridge spanning the Dardanelles Strait have existed since the 1990s. A  bridge was proposed again in 2012, and in 2014, it was placed in the Turkish government's future transportation projects list. In September 2016, the government officially launched the bridge building project. Bids for the contract to construct the bridge were made in 2017. The contract was awarded to a consortium containing Turkish companies Limak Holding and Yapı Merkezi, alongside South Korean companies DL Holdings and SK Ecoplant. Construction began in March 2017. The bridge was initially scheduled for completion in September 2023, and later brought forward to March 2022. On 16 May 2020, the second tower was completed, on  the Gallipoli side (European coast). By 13 November 2021 all block decks were installed. The toll bridge opened for traffic on 18 March 2022, with a toll price of 200 lira (€13.60). Symbolism. Some symbolic figures are associated with the bridge: are all related to the date of the Ottoman naval victory, on 18 March 1915, during the naval operations in the Gallipoli campaign. Meanwhile, the length of the bridge's main span (2023 metres) refers to the centennial of the Turkish Republic (1923–2023).