"Major infrastructure projects in Turkey are seldom less than controversial and the ground breaking ceremony for the third bridge over Istanbul’s Bosphorus straits held this week was guaranteed to spark protests even before the announcement that it was to be named after one of the Ottoman Empire’s less enlightened leaders, Sultan Yavuz Selim, known in the west as “Selim the Grim”.
Critics of the $3bn bridge have long complained that major highways which will be constructed on each side will destroy large areas of unspoiled forest to the north of Istanbul and may even threaten the city’s water supply.
Such criticisms are both justified and a part of the development process but it’s also equally true that the two existing bridges over the Bosphorus were designed to carry only 250,000 vehicles a day but are already handing in excess of 600,000 and cannot be expected to handle the anticipated growth in freight traffic that Turkey’s rapid economic growth continues to generate."
'via Blog this'
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