Ashgabat-Turkmenabat Highway Project Set to Kick Off
The high-speed Ashgabat-Turkmenabat highway will be constructed by Türkmen Awtoban Closed Joint-Stock Company, composed of private enterprises – members of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan CJSC "TURKMEN AWTOBAN are offered a broad scope of opportunities in the context of public private partnership.
Under the Presidential Resolution, the strategically important highway will be constructed in three stages. The project implementation terms are January 2019 – December 2023 with the Ashgabat-Tejen section to be completed in December 2020; the Tejen-Mary section in December 2022; the Mary-Turkmenabat in December 2023.
The prime contractor is to use a government loan totaling US $2.3 billion for the construction. In the next few days, Türkmen Awtoban is set to launch the highway project. To this end, construction machinery and equipment is at the ready at the 24th kilometer of the Ashgabat-Dashoguz highway, where the first meters of road will be built.
According to the construction holding’s specialists, the project envisages an optimal route location for the highway that will link Ashgabat with Turkmenabat – Lebap velayat’s administrative center – the region with vast industrial and transit potential.
Geological and topographic surveys of several tens of kilometers of road have already been completed. Türkmen Awtoban’s subcontractors, scientists, design engineers, specialists of sectoral institutes and state enterprises of Turkmenistan have collaboratively prepared a general layout plan, technical specializations of the proposed highway and planned facilities.
The highway will feature multi-function ATMs, underpasses, scores of big and small bridges, including railway bridges, overpasses, bridges over mudflow-collecting canals and the Murgab and Karakum Rivers. Drivers will use special lanes to pick up or reduce the speed. Aside from that, trumpet junctions will be constructed on the highway to link it with the settlements.
The proposed highway will be equipped up to high world standards. It will have several technical centers tooled with video surveillance systems and other special equipment, traffic police checkpoints and car maintenance centers. Shops, hotels, cafes, indoor and outdoor car parks, gas stations, and other roadside facilities will be located in specially designated areas on either side of the road. Emergency communication terminals and control systems for commercial vehicles (over-height vehicle detectors, automatic load-meters, etc.) will be available as well. Highway drivers will be offered real-time weather information.
To ensure traffic safety, Turkmen specialists adopt best practices in this sphere. One of them is Vision Zero, a road safety program that aims at minimizing traffic accidents and their consequences.
The highway will enable to enhance the quality of logistics services, expand international transit-transport infrastructure and increase foreign trade turnover.