The Sabuncubeli Tunnel ( tr, Sabuncubeli Tüneli) is a road

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

located on the

Mount Sipylus Mount Spil ( tr, Spil Dağı), the ancient Mount Sipylus ( grc, Σίπυλος) (elevation ), is a mountain rich in legends and history in Manisa Province, Turkey, in what used to be the heartland of the Lydians and what is now Turkey's Aegean Re ...

( tr, Spil Dağı) in

Aegean Region The Aegean Region () is one of the 7 geographical regions of Turkey. The largest city in the region is İzmir. Other big cities are Manisa, Aydın, Denizli, Muğla, Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya. Located in western Turkey, it is borde ...

as part of the Manisa-Izmir highway in Turkey. Situated near Kocakara village in the northeast and Beşyol village of

Bornova Bornova is a metropolitan district of İzmir in İzmir Province in Turkey. It is the third largest district in İzmir's Greater Metropolitan Area of and is almost fully urbanized at the rate of 98.6 percent, with corresponding high levels of devel ...

district in the southwest on the province border of

Manisa Manisa (), historically known as Magnesia, is a city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province. Modern Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port ci ...

and Izmir, the twin-tube tunnel is 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 -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 Binali Yıldırım (; born 20 December 1955) is a Turkish politician who served as the 27th and last Prime Minister of Turkey from 2016 to 2018 and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly from 2018 to 2019. He was Leader of the Justice and Devel ...

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 to , and a lesser road grade than of previously designed. The tunnel runs in average underground with a maximum depth of . Excavation works continue at a daily rate of with a total of 150 personnel. The estimated cost was revised to 150 million. A landslide, which occurred in the western tube on the northeast portal during the excavation works in 2013, caused the lengthening of the tunnel to now , and hence a delay in the construction's completion. The tunnel opening is postponed from 2015 to end 2016 but it did not open. The constructing company had the concession to operate the tunnel for a time span of 11 years 11 months and 11 days after its opening, and to collect the

Turkish lira The lira ( tr, Türk lirası; sign: ₺; ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. One lira is divided into one hundred ''kuruş''. History Ottoman lira (1844–1923) The lira, along wit ...

equivalent of US$2.50 as toll but it went bankrupt. The tunnel opened on 11 June 2018. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım was the first one who drove in the tunnel.

Criticism

Hasan Sözbilir, a professor at

Dokuz Eylül University Dokuz Eylül University ( tr, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi) (DEÜ) is a university in İzmir, Turkey. It was founded in 1982 and is organized in 15 faculties. DEU is the first university which applied the problem-based learning method in Turkey, ...

and member of the Izmir Branch of the Chamber of

Engineering Geology Engineering geology is the application of geology to engineering study for the purpose of assuring that the geological factors regarding the location, design, construction, operation and maintenance of engineering works are recognized and accou ...

, warned at a press conference in December 2012 that the Sabuncubeli Tunnel is situated entirely on one of the

fault zone In geology, a fault is a Fracture (geology), planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of Rock (geology), rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust (geolo ...

s in the region. He added that structural measures have to be taken to prevent any damage in case of an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

References

{{Tunnels in Turkey Transport in Manisa Province Transport in İzmir Province Tunnels completed in 2018 Manisa Bornova District