New Zigana Tunnel reduces travel time from 1 hour to 30 minutes
Turkey and Europe’s longest double tube highway tunnel, the new Zigana Tunnel, was inaugurated on Wednesday, with a ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The project features a total of six ventilation shaft structures, including one clean and one polluted air in each of the three stations, marking the first time vertical shaft structures made in highway tunnels have been applied in Turkey. The structure is also unique in a sense that it has been equipped with a vertically raised system that will work similarly to an air conditioner in order to prevent the tunnel from being affected by rain, wind, and snow entering the shaft. The tunnel is estimated to see around 9,000-10,000 vehicles passing through its premises daily. The new Zigana Tunnel is also expected to replace the Ovit Tunnel, which used to be Turkey’s longest double tube road tunnel and one of the world’s longest, before the newly built structure dethroned it.
