Four-time FIM Supersport World Champion, Turkey’s professional motorcycle racer Kenan Sofuoglu reached 400 km/h on the opening day of Osmangazi Bridge, which becomes the fourth-longest suspension bridge in the world and the second longest in Europe. Sofuoglu reached 400 kilometers (248.5 miles) per hour in less than 30 seconds on his Kawasaki Ninja H2R sports bike and broke land speed record on a motorcycle.
The construction of the quake-resistant bridge, which aims to drastically cut travel time between Istanbul and the country’s western provinces, opens today by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
The construction of the quake-resistant bridge began in 2010. The bridge is a 2,682-meter long structure, lies in the southern shore of the Marmara Sea along the route of the new six-lane Istanbul-Izmir Highway Project, which cost around $6.3 billion. The bridge is also known as the Izmit Bridge because it stretches across the Izmit Bay in Turkey.
The 421-kilometer (261.6-mile) long highway will cut the average journey time between Izmir and Istanbul from 10 hours to approximately four hours.
The new bridge and highway will also mean that the drive-time between the country’s second busiest Sabiha Airport and the eastern province of the Bursa Province would be less than an hour.
