Azerbaijan launches large-scale construction work of Toganali-Kalbajar-Istisu highway

By Trend

The State Agency of Azerbaijan Automobile Roads is carrying out large-scale work to restore the road infrastructure in the territories of the country liberated from the Armenian occupation upon the instructions of President of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev, Trend reports.

One of the road infrastructure projects being implemented in the liberated territories is the construction of the Toganali-Kalbajar-Istisu highway. Large-scale construction work has already begun.

The design length of the Toganali-Kalbajar-Istisu highway connecting the Goygol and Kalbajar districts is 80.7 kilometers.

Taking into account the development plan of the Karabakh region, the road is being built following the 1st and 2nd technical categories with 2-4 lanes by the order of the president.

Moreover, taking into account the difficult mountainous and rocky terrain, the main part of the road is planned to be built in accordance with the 2nd technical category, i.e. the carriageway will be two-lane and an additional lane is envisaged on the slopes.

It is planned to organize the four-lane traffic on the sections with tunnels and bridges in accordance with the 1st technical category.

The route according to the project runs through the village of Toganaly, Goygol district. From the 16th kilometer, the Murovdag ridge begins and the height here increases from 1,900 meters to 3,250 meters. Even if additional retaining walls are built on the passes in these areas, safe operation of the road may not be possible during heavy snowfall and freezing weather. Due to the steep cliffs in the area, the movement of construction equipment is limited. When using the existing road, the same difficulties arise when descending from Murovdag.

The slope of the road ranges from 16 to 28 percent. If a road is built with a 7 percent slope, then the length of the road of 16.5 km will need to be increased by another 15 km through the construction of passes. Therefore, instead of building a 31.5-kilometer road in difficult terrain, it was considered more expedient for this section to pass through an 11.7-kilometer tunnel under the Murovdag ridge.

It is also planned to build two more road tunnels with a length of 2,830 and 460 meters. Thus, three tunnels with a total length of about 15 kilometers will be built along the entire route. The traffic will be four-lane (two lanes in each direction), and the width of the carriageway will be 12 meters. Currently, work is underway on the portal of the Murovdag tunnel. Then drilling and blasting and removal of stony rocks by other methods will be carried out.

The construction is carried out by the ‘Operation of Main Roads No. 3’ LLC of the state agency and the Turkish ‘Kolin ?n?aat Turizm Senaye ve Ticaret’ and ‘Cengiz ?n?aat Senaye ve Ticaret’ companies, specialized in this area, attracted as subcontractors.

At present, design and survey, geological and earthworks are being carried out on certain sections of the road.

The work is carried out under the supervision of the leadership of the State Agency of Azerbaijan Automobile Roads.

Water drainage in accordance with the project will be provided through 103 pipes with a total length of 2,575 meters. Also, five road bridges with a total length of 450 meters will be built.

The Toganaly-Kalbajar-Istisu road route runs through the liberated Kelbajar region, starting from the Toganaly village of the Goygol district. Its construction will provide comfortable travel to many settlements and the center of the district, as well as to the famous Istisu.

This road project, being implemented in coordination with other state structures within the framework of the Working Group on Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Interdepartmental Center operating under the Coordination Headquarters, is an integral part of the unified transport concept of Karabakh.

The Coordination Headquarters, created by the order of the head of state dated November 24, 2020, is headed by Head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Samir Nuriyev.