So …….. yesterday we decided to see how much progress has been made on this new road.
We joined the D400 at the junction at the end of Cleopatra Beach by the fairground.
The first part took us along the underpass which we have driven on many occasions and was completed last year .
This time, however, we continued.
When traffic for the D400 filtered off to the right we continued on and drove on the new overpass finding ourselves flying through from one end of Alanya to the other. No heavy traffic, no annoying lights, no stress. We were bypassing the centre of Alanya on a flat, wide and fast freeway.
This continued almost almost the the end of Alanya, to the border between Oba and Tosmur.
There our journey was abruptly halted and we were diverted back to the usual route to Mahmutlar, one or two junctions east of Koctas on the D400.
Was that it we wondered, there was no sign of any continued construction beyond the point where we had been diverted back to the main route.
Had they stopped construction altogether?
We decided to venture to Dim Cay to see whether there was any sign of development around the area where the new tunnels were being constructed to take traffic through the mountain to Kestel/Mahmutlar.
Just before the bridge at Dim Cay, which crosses the river to the barage road, we faced a roadblock. Road signs diverted us up a long and winding hill to the top of the canyon’s left side and back down to where the restaurants are located. We couldn’t see from this road why we were diverted from this road but we did enjoy a beautiful scenery with bee farms, wild flowers and unspoilt countryside.
All this exploring made us hungry so we stopped off for a bite to eat at Kervanseray Restaurant, very nice!!!
After driving back up the side of the hill to meet the main road again we sneaked through the barriers closing the main road through the Dim Valley to find out what was happening .
And there is was. A magnificent construction seemingly appeared from nowhere!
It was difficult to see everything clearly as we were so low, but the main freeway/bypass road appeared to be already constructed on a huge flyover spanning the river bed and valley edges all the way through to the entrance of the tunnels.
Work was now concentrating on a huge slip-road/exit-road to enable traffic visitors to leave the main freeway in order to access the eastern edges of Alanya and Dim Cay.
It was not possible to see how far back this new road goes and how close it is to connecting with the section of road we had previously travelled on bypassing Alanya.
It is, therefore, hard to estimate when we will be able to travel all the way through to the Dim Cay Tunnels
Whatever the distance, I think the answer is this, work that is left will be relatively straightforward as the more complex sections and constructions have been tackled first.
This project is well on its way to allow heavy and through traffic to completely bypass Alanya centrum and emerge in Kestel/Mahmutlar from the tunnels through the mountain.
Watch this space – we will go back soon (ish) !!!!
