The fabled Silk Route from China to Europe takes many forms, and is again becoming increasingly important as Patrick Smithreports
The ancient Silk Road was never a single caravan route, but covered hundreds of kilometres in width extending in length for around 10,000km. This is the view of the European International Road Transport Union (IRU), and many other countries and organisations, who point out that it is a system of routes covering many countries via a series of branch roads that dates back some 2
The first-ever commercial truck caravan arrived in Brussels from Beijing in 2005 effectively reopening the ancient Silk Road
The fabled Silk Route from China to Europe takes many forms, and is again becoming increasingly important as Patrick Smithreports
The ancient Silk Road was never a single caravan route, but covered hundreds of kilometres in width extending in length for around 10,000km. This is the view of the European1203 International Road Transport Union (IRU), and many other countries and organisations, who point out that it is a system of routes covering many countries via a series of branch roads that dates back some 2,200km.
Essentially the route connected China in the east with Europe in the west, and visions of camels and other animals carrying silk, spices and other goods along the winding, dusty routes, stopping at various staging posts, is not a bad one. Today it is heavy trucks carrying a wider range of goods along modern, usually surfaced roads.
According to records (take your pick), the Silk Road started in Xian, central China (home of the life-size Terracota Army of warriors) and ended in the cities of Antioch and Tyre on the coast of Lebanon. Others say it ended in Rome, Italy, as well as Russia or Iran.
Whichever of these it was (or wasn't), the IRU in cooperation with various companies and organisations, including the713 International Road Federation (IRF), has pressed to revitalise the Silk Road, which in recent years has taken on an increasing importance.
Indeed, the IRF Silk Road programme aims to promote the Euro-Asian transport link saying that rehabilitation of these roads is important to the promotion of economic and trade development in the 21st century, while it believes the Black Sea Ring Highway programme is key to building a successful economic region around the Black Sea. Based on a Memorandum of Understanding with the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the IRF is actively contributing to this by bringing together the major international players with an interest in the region.
The IRU says it has long been striving to reopen the ancient road to trade by road transport in order "to interconnect every business to every major world market and, by so doing, to significantly contribute to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals on the Eurasian landmass [by assisting Eurasian landlocked countries' industries to have access to the major world markets, as no country is landlocked for road transport]." To this end over the last six years it has organised a number of 'caravans' from east to west to showcase the potential of road transport in providing goods deliveries along these routes.In 2010, the IRU-ECO Silk Road Truck Caravan, Driving Progress from Islamabad to Istanbul, looked to further these aims.
In 2004, a caravan of Russian trucks left the Portuguese capital Lisbon starting a run of 15,000km through Brussels (Belgium) and Moscow to Vladivostok in the east of Russia in order to draw public attention to construction of the Trans-Siberian highway.
However, in October, 2005 it was declared that when the first-ever commercial truck caravan arrived in Brussels, it had "effectively reopened the ancient Silk Road to meet the growing business needs of the European, Asian and American economies for viable transport alternatives in light of stifling congestion at Chinese ports and dramatically increasing maritime freight rates." Under the slogan from Beijing to Brussels, Road Transport Drives Progress, the caravan had completed its historic 12,000km journey that had started in the Chinese capital Beijing on 27 September during the 3rd IRU Euro-Asian Road Transport Conference on Road Transport bridging Asia and Europe.
Officials noted that it had been proven that freight could be efficiently transported from China to CIS countries and further to the European Union within just one-third of the time it would take by sea.
"This caravan demonstrates that road transport, in an increasingly competitive globalised world economy, is no longer just a means of carriage, but rather an irreplaceable production tool for all companies and economies," said the IRU officials.
In April and May, 2007, another important caravan procession drove a total of 8,500km along the planned route of the Black Sea Ring Highway, which is very much linked to the Silk Road. Having driven across the 12 Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) countries, the 12 trucks arrived in Istanbul, Turkey ["the emerging pearl of Europe"], a rapidly developing country where east meets west; where huge highway projects are planned; which boasts the fifth biggest economy in Europe (16th in the world) and which is the fifth biggest construction equipment market in Europe, although over 95% of its land mass is in Asia.
The caravan had visited Belgrade (Serbia); Durres (Albania); Thessaloniki (Greece); Plovdiv (Bulgaria); Bucharest (Romania); Chisinau (Moldova); Odessa (Ukraine); Volgograd, Astrakan and Makhachkala (Russia); Baku (Azerbaijan); Yerevan (Armenia); Tbilisi (Georgia); Trabzon, and Samsun before arriving in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.
The caravan collected significant data regarding non-physical barriers to road transport in the BSEC region and road infrastructure around the Black Sea basin, while transporting goods between the BSEC countries.
A further major step in the Silk Road's revival was taken with the launch of the IRU's New Eurasian Land Transport Initiative (NELTI), which set out to demonstrate that road transport haulage along the Silk Road, from Central Asian and Asia Pacific regions to Europe, "is now operational, with no additional investment in infrastructure required." While this may be the case, major roads along the routes are constantly being repaired, upgraded or renewed.
Seven road transport companies from Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkey and Uzbekistan carried freight deliveries of industrial and consumer goods along the Northern, Central and Southern Routes (each with numerous offshoots) of the ancient Silk Road from September- December, 2008.
Supported by leading international organisations including the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP); the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), as well as various governmental bodies, the IRU's NELTI aimed to raise political, public and business awareness about existing alternatives to the transport of goods from Asia to Europe.
The Northern Route, covering some 6,500km stretches from the Chinese borders via Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus to the1116 European Union, and covers the territory of 13 countries and three different road segments: Central Asia, Russia and the European Union.
Important routes along the corridor include Warsaw (Poland)-Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan); Tashkent (Uzbekistan)-Antwerp (Belgium) and Ulm (Germany) and Almaty (Kazakhstan)-Minsk (Belarus).
The Central Route has different legs leaving from the Black Sea; is approximately 5,100km long and covers a territory from Central Asia, via Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia, to Europe.
Important routes are from Tashkent-Denzil (Turkey); Istanbul-Bishkek; Almaty-Samsun and Almaty-Istanbul, a distance of over 6,000km.The Southern Route, at some 4,000km, is the shortest, and starting from Kyrgyzstan it leads to the European Union through Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey. Important sections are Istanbul-Osh (Kyrgyzstan); Tashkent-Sofia (Bulgaria); Istanbul-Atirau (Kazakhstan) and Istanbul-Almaty, a distance of over 6,200km.
Meanwhile, the transport corridor TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) is also a renaissance of the great fabled Silk Road, and is an international transport cooperation programme between the EU and its partner countries in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. It has a permanent Secretariat in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The cooperation framework covers the areas of maritime transport, aviation, road and rail, transport security, and transport infrastructure.
The corridor starts in the Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine) and crosses Turkey.
There are routes passing the Black Sea to the ports of Poti and Batumi in Georgia, further using the transport network of the Southern Caucasus, and a land connection towards this region from Turkey. From Azerbaijan by means of the Caspian ferries (Baku-Turkmenbashi, Baku-Aktau) the TRACECA route reaches the railway networks of Central Asian states of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The transport networks of these states are connected to destinations in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and reach the borders of China and Afghanistan.
Turkey plays a pivotal role in the routes, and in 2010 it achieved a gross domestic product (GDP) of 7% which, according to a report by the3764 Ammann Group, makes it one of the most dynamic economies in the world and one of the fastest growing economies in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Turkey's roads have an overall length of 413,724km." In 2009, the1363 Turkey's Ministry of Transport introduced plans for a total of 12 new highway sections totalling 4,773km in length to be constructed by 2023, thus doubling the existing highway network.
An US$8 billion project between Istanbul and Izmir includes 377km of highway, 44km of arterial roads and a 3km long suspension bridge over the Gulf of Izmir.
The highway, for which ground was broken late in 2010, will consist of many structural features due to prevailing geographic conditions and these include 30 viaducts; four tunnels with an overall length of 7.4km, and 209 bridges. The Considerable work is being carried out in the Black Sea resort of Sochi project is expected to be complete by 2017.
A third bridge with a length of 1,275m will cross the Bosphorus near Istanbul and is part of another new 260km route. The overall cost of construction is estimated at $6.6 billion.
Further large-scale projects are intended to help improve developments in the east, and in total Turkey will spend some $368 billion on transportation (road, sea, air and railways) by 2023 "Turkey's growing economic strength has put the country on the best route towards fulfilling the expectations placed by the population in the nation's founding father Ataturk," notes Ammann.
A Turkish project is also among a number that have been nominated for the1102 International Transport Forum's Transport Achievement Award 2011. It honours transport achievements that have "put people first" through demonstrated excellence in identifying and efficiently meeting the transport needs of their clients. It is awarded by the ITF and the European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services (CLECAT); the International Federation of Freight Forwarding Associations (FIATA) and the International Association of Public Transport (UITP).
The Istanbul Electricity, Tram and Tunnel (IETT) is among schemes shortlisted.
In a survey, Istanbul's citizens identified congestion as the number one problem in their city with 23% of residents spending more than three hours in traffic each day. The objective of the Istanbul Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is to provide fast, reliable, high quality, sustainable transport services on a 43km corridor linking Asia to Europe. It is used by 600,000 travellers each day and provides an average time saving of 109 minutes/day for those travelling the length of the European route.
The first phase of the corridor opened in 2007. At the time 67% of riders stated they were "satisfied" while another 26% were "absolutely satisfied." Since 2009 the BRT crosses the Bosphorus Bridge, which is a major bottleneck, saving travellers about half an hour's travel time per direction during peak hours.
Neighbouring Georgia is investing heavily in its infrastructure including rebuilding the E60 (or its East-West Highway across the country), a road which in its entirety stretches from Brest in France and across Germany, Austria, Hungary, ...
The country's economic boom also means that investments in the construction of new highways, railways, ports, airports, pipelines and broadband cable networks can also increase Romania, Switzerland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and ends in Irkeshtam, Kyrgzstan, following the ancient route of the Silk Road.
Ashtrom International, based out of Israel, was responsible for rebuilding 25km of the old highway from Igoeti to Sveneti as a new fourlane highway, and it introduced slipforming to the country as a way of producing quality concrete roadways more efficiently and cost effectively.
Ashtrom International bought a new218 Gomaco GP-4000 slipform paver and a T/C-600 texture/cure machine to slipform the new east/west portion of roadway.
In Russia a mid-2010 report examining the country's overall capacity to support a long-term world-class infrastructure 'build' concluded that it should be one of the largest and most dynamic infrastructure markets in the world over the next 15 years.
The country, which like Georgia and Turkey has a Black Sea coastline, is a natural bridge between east and west, and the development of international transport corridors is a major focus in order to strengthen the transit and investment potential of the country and ensure the execution of the European agreement on international routes.
Russia's Federal Transport Agency has a programme for strategic long-term development that provides for the construction and reconstruction of 1,380km of federal roads corresponding to the trans-European transport corridors N2, N9, A1, and linking Europe to Western China.
However, considerable work is being carried out in the Black Sea resort of Sochi (also on the Silk Road), which will host the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games for the first time in Russia in 2014, and the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in the same year.
According to the man in charge of the Olympics, Dmitry Chernyshenko, preparations are ahead of schedule and within budget.
He said: "In some areas we're ahead of our ambitious plan. This is the biggest construction site in the world. I visited the Olympic park in London, where 10,000 constructors are working.
While in Sochi we've already got 42,000 construction workers going day and night to deliver our ambitious project: the most compact and efficient Olympic infrastructure." Spread over a huge site near Europe's longest city (147km) and in the mountains some way from Sochi, the work involves building the Olympic venues and village costing an estimated $6 billion-plus, along with new highways at what is one of Europe's largest construction programmes. The new and upgraded roads are aimed at easing city centre traffic jams, which are bad, and quickly transporting competitors and spectators to and from the sporting venues.
One such project is the Adler to Alpica- Service mountain resort integrated road and railroad project recently.
The highway will connect the Adler municipality of Sochi, where the airport and railway station is located, with the mountain resort, which is the venue for the Olympic skiing cluster.
The 50km long highway includes 35km of bridges and overpasses as well as six tunnels with a total length of 26.5km (10.3km of railway, 6.7km of motorway and 9.5km of shaft tunnel), and five traffic interchanges on existing roads.
It is being constructed for Russian Railways by general contractor2448 Transugstroy with 2449 USK Most and 2450 Mostotrest as contractors.
The first 6km section connecting the airport with the existing Krasnaya Polyana road in Sochi was opened in late August, 2010.
The project will offer travel to the mountain resort from Sochi in just 30 minutes by train, and it is using advanced road and bridge construction technologies with the roads and rail links designed to meet high seismic load requirements.
The ancient Silk Road was never a single caravan route, but covered hundreds of kilometres in width extending in length for around 10,000km. This is the view of the European
Essentially the route connected China in the east with Europe in the west, and visions of camels and other animals carrying silk, spices and other goods along the winding, dusty routes, stopping at various staging posts, is not a bad one. Today it is heavy trucks carrying a wider range of goods along modern, usually surfaced roads.
According to records (take your pick), the Silk Road started in Xian, central China (home of the life-size Terracota Army of warriors) and ended in the cities of Antioch and Tyre on the coast of Lebanon. Others say it ended in Rome, Italy, as well as Russia or Iran.
Whichever of these it was (or wasn't), the IRU in cooperation with various companies and organisations, including the
Indeed, the IRF Silk Road programme aims to promote the Euro-Asian transport link saying that rehabilitation of these roads is important to the promotion of economic and trade development in the 21st century, while it believes the Black Sea Ring Highway programme is key to building a successful economic region around the Black Sea. Based on a Memorandum of Understanding with the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the IRF is actively contributing to this by bringing together the major international players with an interest in the region.
The IRU says it has long been striving to reopen the ancient road to trade by road transport in order "to interconnect every business to every major world market and, by so doing, to significantly contribute to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals on the Eurasian landmass [by assisting Eurasian landlocked countries' industries to have access to the major world markets, as no country is landlocked for road transport]." To this end over the last six years it has organised a number of 'caravans' from east to west to showcase the potential of road transport in providing goods deliveries along these routes.In 2010, the IRU-ECO Silk Road Truck Caravan, Driving Progress from Islamabad to Istanbul, looked to further these aims.
In 2004, a caravan of Russian trucks left the Portuguese capital Lisbon starting a run of 15,000km through Brussels (Belgium) and Moscow to Vladivostok in the east of Russia in order to draw public attention to construction of the Trans-Siberian highway.
However, in October, 2005 it was declared that when the first-ever commercial truck caravan arrived in Brussels, it had "effectively reopened the ancient Silk Road to meet the growing business needs of the European, Asian and American economies for viable transport alternatives in light of stifling congestion at Chinese ports and dramatically increasing maritime freight rates." Under the slogan from Beijing to Brussels, Road Transport Drives Progress, the caravan had completed its historic 12,000km journey that had started in the Chinese capital Beijing on 27 September during the 3rd IRU Euro-Asian Road Transport Conference on Road Transport bridging Asia and Europe.
Officials noted that it had been proven that freight could be efficiently transported from China to CIS countries and further to the European Union within just one-third of the time it would take by sea.
"This caravan demonstrates that road transport, in an increasingly competitive globalised world economy, is no longer just a means of carriage, but rather an irreplaceable production tool for all companies and economies," said the IRU officials.
In April and May, 2007, another important caravan procession drove a total of 8,500km along the planned route of the Black Sea Ring Highway, which is very much linked to the Silk Road. Having driven across the 12 Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) countries, the 12 trucks arrived in Istanbul, Turkey ["the emerging pearl of Europe"], a rapidly developing country where east meets west; where huge highway projects are planned; which boasts the fifth biggest economy in Europe (16th in the world) and which is the fifth biggest construction equipment market in Europe, although over 95% of its land mass is in Asia.
The caravan had visited Belgrade (Serbia); Durres (Albania); Thessaloniki (Greece); Plovdiv (Bulgaria); Bucharest (Romania); Chisinau (Moldova); Odessa (Ukraine); Volgograd, Astrakan and Makhachkala (Russia); Baku (Azerbaijan); Yerevan (Armenia); Tbilisi (Georgia); Trabzon, and Samsun before arriving in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.
The caravan collected significant data regarding non-physical barriers to road transport in the BSEC region and road infrastructure around the Black Sea basin, while transporting goods between the BSEC countries.
A further major step in the Silk Road's revival was taken with the launch of the IRU's New Eurasian Land Transport Initiative (NELTI), which set out to demonstrate that road transport haulage along the Silk Road, from Central Asian and Asia Pacific regions to Europe, "is now operational, with no additional investment in infrastructure required." While this may be the case, major roads along the routes are constantly being repaired, upgraded or renewed.
Seven road transport companies from Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkey and Uzbekistan carried freight deliveries of industrial and consumer goods along the Northern, Central and Southern Routes (each with numerous offshoots) of the ancient Silk Road from September- December, 2008.
Supported by leading international organisations including the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP); the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), as well as various governmental bodies, the IRU's NELTI aimed to raise political, public and business awareness about existing alternatives to the transport of goods from Asia to Europe.
The Northern Route, covering some 6,500km stretches from the Chinese borders via Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus to the
Important routes along the corridor include Warsaw (Poland)-Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan); Tashkent (Uzbekistan)-Antwerp (Belgium) and Ulm (Germany) and Almaty (Kazakhstan)-Minsk (Belarus).
The Central Route has different legs leaving from the Black Sea; is approximately 5,100km long and covers a territory from Central Asia, via Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia, to Europe.
Important routes are from Tashkent-Denzil (Turkey); Istanbul-Bishkek; Almaty-Samsun and Almaty-Istanbul, a distance of over 6,000km.The Southern Route, at some 4,000km, is the shortest, and starting from Kyrgyzstan it leads to the European Union through Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey. Important sections are Istanbul-Osh (Kyrgyzstan); Tashkent-Sofia (Bulgaria); Istanbul-Atirau (Kazakhstan) and Istanbul-Almaty, a distance of over 6,200km.
Meanwhile, the transport corridor TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia) is also a renaissance of the great fabled Silk Road, and is an international transport cooperation programme between the EU and its partner countries in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. It has a permanent Secretariat in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The cooperation framework covers the areas of maritime transport, aviation, road and rail, transport security, and transport infrastructure.
The corridor starts in the Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine) and crosses Turkey.
There are routes passing the Black Sea to the ports of Poti and Batumi in Georgia, further using the transport network of the Southern Caucasus, and a land connection towards this region from Turkey. From Azerbaijan by means of the Caspian ferries (Baku-Turkmenbashi, Baku-Aktau) the TRACECA route reaches the railway networks of Central Asian states of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The transport networks of these states are connected to destinations in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and reach the borders of China and Afghanistan.
Turkey plays a pivotal role in the routes, and in 2010 it achieved a gross domestic product (GDP) of 7% which, according to a report by the
Turkey's roads have an overall length of 413,724km." In 2009, the
An US$8 billion project between Istanbul and Izmir includes 377km of highway, 44km of arterial roads and a 3km long suspension bridge over the Gulf of Izmir.
The highway, for which ground was broken late in 2010, will consist of many structural features due to prevailing geographic conditions and these include 30 viaducts; four tunnels with an overall length of 7.4km, and 209 bridges. The Considerable work is being carried out in the Black Sea resort of Sochi project is expected to be complete by 2017.
A third bridge with a length of 1,275m will cross the Bosphorus near Istanbul and is part of another new 260km route. The overall cost of construction is estimated at $6.6 billion.
Further large-scale projects are intended to help improve developments in the east, and in total Turkey will spend some $368 billion on transportation (road, sea, air and railways) by 2023 "Turkey's growing economic strength has put the country on the best route towards fulfilling the expectations placed by the population in the nation's founding father Ataturk," notes Ammann.
A Turkish project is also among a number that have been nominated for the
The Istanbul Electricity, Tram and Tunnel (IETT) is among schemes shortlisted.
In a survey, Istanbul's citizens identified congestion as the number one problem in their city with 23% of residents spending more than three hours in traffic each day. The objective of the Istanbul Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is to provide fast, reliable, high quality, sustainable transport services on a 43km corridor linking Asia to Europe. It is used by 600,000 travellers each day and provides an average time saving of 109 minutes/day for those travelling the length of the European route.
The first phase of the corridor opened in 2007. At the time 67% of riders stated they were "satisfied" while another 26% were "absolutely satisfied." Since 2009 the BRT crosses the Bosphorus Bridge, which is a major bottleneck, saving travellers about half an hour's travel time per direction during peak hours.
Neighbouring Georgia is investing heavily in its infrastructure including rebuilding the E60 (or its East-West Highway across the country), a road which in its entirety stretches from Brest in France and across Germany, Austria, Hungary, ...
The country's economic boom also means that investments in the construction of new highways, railways, ports, airports, pipelines and broadband cable networks can also increase Romania, Switzerland, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and ends in Irkeshtam, Kyrgzstan, following the ancient route of the Silk Road.
Ashtrom International, based out of Israel, was responsible for rebuilding 25km of the old highway from Igoeti to Sveneti as a new fourlane highway, and it introduced slipforming to the country as a way of producing quality concrete roadways more efficiently and cost effectively.
Ashtrom International bought a new
In Russia a mid-2010 report examining the country's overall capacity to support a long-term world-class infrastructure 'build' concluded that it should be one of the largest and most dynamic infrastructure markets in the world over the next 15 years.
The country, which like Georgia and Turkey has a Black Sea coastline, is a natural bridge between east and west, and the development of international transport corridors is a major focus in order to strengthen the transit and investment potential of the country and ensure the execution of the European agreement on international routes.
Russia's Federal Transport Agency has a programme for strategic long-term development that provides for the construction and reconstruction of 1,380km of federal roads corresponding to the trans-European transport corridors N2, N9, A1, and linking Europe to Western China.
However, considerable work is being carried out in the Black Sea resort of Sochi (also on the Silk Road), which will host the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games for the first time in Russia in 2014, and the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in the same year.
According to the man in charge of the Olympics, Dmitry Chernyshenko, preparations are ahead of schedule and within budget.
He said: "In some areas we're ahead of our ambitious plan. This is the biggest construction site in the world. I visited the Olympic park in London, where 10,000 constructors are working.
While in Sochi we've already got 42,000 construction workers going day and night to deliver our ambitious project: the most compact and efficient Olympic infrastructure." Spread over a huge site near Europe's longest city (147km) and in the mountains some way from Sochi, the work involves building the Olympic venues and village costing an estimated $6 billion-plus, along with new highways at what is one of Europe's largest construction programmes. The new and upgraded roads are aimed at easing city centre traffic jams, which are bad, and quickly transporting competitors and spectators to and from the sporting venues.
One such project is the Adler to Alpica- Service mountain resort integrated road and railroad project recently.
The highway will connect the Adler municipality of Sochi, where the airport and railway station is located, with the mountain resort, which is the venue for the Olympic skiing cluster.
The 50km long highway includes 35km of bridges and overpasses as well as six tunnels with a total length of 26.5km (10.3km of railway, 6.7km of motorway and 9.5km of shaft tunnel), and five traffic interchanges on existing roads.
It is being constructed for Russian Railways by general contractor
The first 6km section connecting the airport with the existing Krasnaya Polyana road in Sochi was opened in late August, 2010.
The project will offer travel to the mountain resort from Sochi in just 30 minutes by train, and it is using advanced road and bridge construction technologies with the roads and rail links designed to meet high seismic load requirements.
