Some 1,000 tons of cement and 28,000 tons of rebar are used every day for the construction of the Tehran-North Freeway, according to deputy minister of roads and urban development, Saeed Mohammadzadeh.
“As many as 3,080 workers are working at 126 construction sites of the freeway project,” Mehr News agency quoted Mohammadzadeh, who also heads the state-affiliated Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company, as saying on Wednesday.
According to the official, the $2.2 billion freeway, which connects the capital city Tehran to Chalous in the northern Mazandaran Province, has made a 32% progress.
The progress rate stood at 18% at the beginning of the last Iranian year (started March 21, 2015).
Initial plans to build the road, which consists of four sections spanning 121 kilometers, were proposed 20 years ago. The government of President Hassan Rouhani expedited work on the project by setting a deadline for completing Section 1 by March 2017.
According to Mohammadzadeh, Section 1 is 71.8% complete. The 32-kilometer stretch will cut the current path short by 60 kilometers. Seven contractors, including a Chinese company, are working on this section.
A tender is underway to select contractors for Section 2 to start work in early November. Sections 2 and 3 pass through mountainous terrain.
Section 4 of the freeway, which is 20 kilometers long and connects Marzanabad in Kelardasht District to Chalous (both in Mazandaran), was inaugurated in March 2014, but was later closed to the public due to technical problems.
Add new comment
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints