Japan IHI and ITOCHU consortium shall build the Izmit Bay Transition Bridge at the Gebze – Orhangazi – Izmir Highway being the biggest highway project of Turkey and that will reduce the distance of Istanbul-Izmir to only 3.5 hours. IHI, who has also built the Akashi Bridge in Japan, being the longest suspension bridge in the world, is not foreign to Turkey. IHI had built the Fatih Sultan Mehmet and Haliç Bridges in Turkey. The cost of the bridge to reduce the Bay Transition from 70 minutes to a mere 6 minutes shall be 1.1 billion dollars. The contract signatures were affixed yesterday among Otoyol A.Ş. and Japan IHI and ITOCHU consortium for the construction of the suspension bridge – being one of the few bridges with its 3 kilometers length – at a ceremony with the participation of the Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım.