1915 Çanakkale Bridge

The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge (1915 Çanakkale Köprüsü) 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, about 10 km south of the Sea of Marmara. The bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world—with a main span of 2,023 m, the bridge surpasses the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge (1998) in Japan by 32 m.

The bridge was officially opened by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 18 March 2022 after roughly five years of construction. It is the centrepiece of the planned 321 km US$2.8 billion O-6 motorway, which will connect the O-3 and O-7 motorways in East Thrace to the O-5 motorway in Anatolia. The year "1915" in the official Turkish name honours an important Ottoman victory in the Gallipoli campaign against firstly a naval engagement followed by a land invasion on the Gallipoli peninsula by the forces of Australia, New Zealand (The ANZACS), France and Great Britain from the 25th April 1915 which were largely evacuated by December of that year.

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's tender project was designed by Tekfen Construction and Installation and detailed designed by COWI A/S and Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants (PEC) 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 3,563 m and together with the approach viaducts the length reaches 4,608 m, which surpasses the total length of the Osman Gazi Bridge and its approach viaducts by 527 m, to become the longest bridge of any type in Turkey.

The height of the bridge's two towers is 334 m, making it the tallest bridge in Turkey, surpassing Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, and the third tallest structure in the country. Internationally, the bridge is the second tallest bridge in the world, surpassing the Pingtang Bridge in China. The deck of the bridge is 72.8 m high and 45.06 m wide, with a maximum thickness of 3.5 m. The deck carries six lanes of motorway (three in each direction), together with a walkway on each side for maintenance.

According to President Erdoğan, the bridge cost 2.5 billion euros (2.7 billion US dollars) 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 (€6.78).

Symbolism
Some symbolic figures are associated with the bridge:


 * the number 1915 in the name,
 * the height of intersection point of main cable (318 m),
 * and the opening date (18 March),

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 (2,023 metres) refers to the centennial of the Turkish Republic (1923–2023).