"A Bridge between the Past and Present" is the name of a project that polarizes the opinions of the inhabitants of Istanbul. The Istanbul Metropolitan Heritage Association (IBMD) designed a project to pave both Bosporus bridges, the two most frequented traffic arteries of the megacity, with cobble stone.

Mustafa Mimar, IBMD member and Professor of Historical Architecture at the Black Sea University (KDÜ), initiated the realization of this world-wide unique project.

"The Bosporus Bridges are a link between the East and West, a connection between Asia and Europe. It can be seen as a logic consequence to transform them into a bridge between times", Mimar explained in a statement made to bianet on 1 April.

Traffic expert Ahmet Uzunyol remains sceptic: "Even though I appreciate the symbolic meaning of the project, we may not forget the hundreds of thousands of people who are crossing the bridges day by day. They will face even more problems in an already congested traffic situation".

According to Mimar, the positive outcome of the project will outweigh temporary restrictions to the flow of traffic by far.

"It will only take about three months to pave one bridge with cobble stone. And we will transform only one bridge at a time. Once the road works will have been finished, traffic will flow as usual since there is a speed limit on both bridges anyway.  The Bosporus bridges are not the longest or highest bridges in the world, but the cobble stones will make them absolutely unique. We are planning to organize a three-day festival on one of the bridges each year in order to raise funds for further projects". (PF)

NOTE: This article is an April Fool's Day hoax. Names, events and people are made up. Possible concordances with real people and events are unintended and a coincidence.