In order to develop the country’s road construction, upgrade and increase the transport and transit capacity, the Government of Turkmenistan adopted a resolution on the construction of a two-way two-lane road bridge across the Garabogaz Kol Bay along the Turkmenbashy-Garabogaz-border of Kazakhstan highway and its lead roads.

The document prescribes to commission the automobile bridge and its lead roads fully ready to operate in June 2024.

The bridge is being built along the route leading from Turkmenbashy through the Garabogaz Bay to the border of Kazakhstan. The width of the Garabogaz kol Strait is 200 meters. It connects the gulf of the same name to the Caspian Sea.

The crossing will help increase the volume of trade turnover, and fright and passenger traffic between the two countries. It will also allow freight forwarders from Turkmenistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iran and India to use sea, rail and motor transport, and access the countries of Northern and Eastern Europe in the shortest possible way.

The new facility of the transport infrastructure of Turkmenistan will enable foreign cargo carriers to get to the countries of Northern and Eastern Europe in the shortest way, using both motor, sea and rail transport.

The bridge being built across the Garabogaz Bay will create excellent conditions for the active integration of Turkmenistan into the global economic space, and will further strengthen its cooperation with foreign countries.

The emergence of a new facility of the transport infrastructure in this area will also result in a significant increase in the volume of trade turnover, freight and passenger traffic between the northern and eastern regions of Turkmenistan.

It should be noted that the roads being built and reconstructed today in Turkmenistan should create optimal conditions for the smooth transportation of passengers and goods between Europe and Central Asia through the International Seaport of Turkmenbashy.

The new bridge across the Garabogaz kol Strait will become an important engineering structure of the international transport route Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan, the reconstruction of the road leading to it, which will be connected to the Ashgabat-Turkmenbashy highway, and will significantly increase the throughput capacity of the country’s road system, improve the quality and efficiency of logistics services, expand the international transport and transit infrastructure, trade and economic relations with the neighboring states.

A new engineering structure is being built on the site of an old two-lane bridge that can no longer cope with increased traffic loads.

According to the project developed by the specialists of the design institute of the State Concern “Turkmenavtoyollary”, the bridge will be a structure 354 meters long, 17 meters wide and 7 meters high above the surface of the bay, which will provide four-lane traffic (two lanes in each direction) towards the border of Kazakhstan. Builders also have to arrange two thousand meters of access roads.

The spans of the new bridge will be made of metal structures 110 and 64 meters long, as well as reinforced concrete beams, which should ensure its high load capacity and stability. Two meters wide pedestrian zones with artificial lighting and fencing will also be laid.

The new bridge is part of the logistics system being built in the west of Turkmenistan. A highway will pass through it, which will become a continuation of the Ashgabat-Turkmenbashy multimodal highway, and will connect Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, which will make it possible to increase the traffic flow and trade turnover between the two countries.

As the President of Kazakhstan said, on the border of the Mangistau Region of Kazakhstan and the Balkan Velayat of Turkmenistan, it would be possible to create in the future a Special Border Trade Zone with an automobile cargo terminal.

Both Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have great potential for further expansion of trade. There are solid reserves in the energy, transport, logistics, agriculture, industry and other sectors.

For example, Kazakhstan is ready to increase supplies to Turkmenistan of products of the metallurgical, machine-building, petrochemical, food and pharmaceutical industries, as well as agricultural products, primarily flour and wheat. Kazakhstan, in turn, is ready to significantly increase the import of Turkmen gas.

For more effective economic cooperation, the governments of the countries were instructed to speed up the signing of the Agreement on the Encouragement and Protection of Investments.