Support for Heitkamp Construction Swiss with motorway construction in Istanbul
Heitkamp Construction Swiss has been participating in a motorway project to connect the industrial and logistics centres in the European part of Istanbul and calm traffic in the city. SERV supported the project with buyer credit insurance.
23.10.2025
With more than 15 million inhabitants, Istanbul is the most populous city in Europe and is growing from year to year. This growth presents challenges, especially with regard to traffic.
The Northern Marmara Motorway, a new bypass in the European part of Istanbul, is intended to help divert transit traffic away from the city centre and reduce environmental and noise pollution there. The final stage of construction of this road is the Nakkaş–Başakşehir section, which has been realised with the help of Swiss company Heitkamp Construction Swiss.
Ambitious motorway project in a sensitive environment
The 31-kilometre Nakkaş–Başakşehir section of the motorway includes various tunnels, viaducts and junctions and an 860-metre cable-stayed bridge over a valley. The road also passes through residential areas. The construction work was suspended in October 2022 to ensure that international standards were being observed and that issues regarding potential resettlements and expropriations were addressed. Work resumed in early 2024.
The section was built under a BOT (Build–Operate–Transfer) model. Under this model, private investors build and operate infrastructure projects, then later transfer these to the state.
The construction of the Northern Marmara Motorway broke new ground not only with regard to its financing but also with regard to sustainability: the motorway is operated with digital toll systems, the roads are lit with LED lighting and an integrated solar energy system actively contributes to reducing greenhouse gases.
Tunnels and bridges with Swiss expertise
Alongside various other international companies, the Swiss company Heitkamp Construction Swiss was involved in the construction of this stretch of the motorway. The procurement of specific building materials and technical equipment was a fundamental part of Heitkamp’s mandate.
The Swiss contract value totalled 31.7 million euros. Swiss contracting partners from the construction, energy and automation technology, and construction machinery industries were involved as subcontractors.
High financing requirements need coordination between creditors
Swiss Export Risk Insurance SERV provided support for Heitkamp’s export services and was also involved in financing the project. The total finance requirements amounted to around 1.1 billion euros. SERV provided buyer credit insurance of about 240 million euros, half of which was reinsured by Polish export credit agency KUKE.
In addition to SERV and KUKE, various other export credit agencies, creditors and sponsors were also involved in financing the project. This also presented challenges.
“The cooperation between the different stakeholders was initially challenging. We needed a coordination hub to get the banks and insurers at the same table as the advisors and the sponsors,” says Vira Tsymbalyuk, a SERV expert in project financing and infrastructure projects.
Award-winning financing model
The coordination work has paid off: the project has already won multiple awards: Global Infrastructure Deal of the Year at the Project Finance International Awards 2024 and the TXF Export Finance Award for Social Infrastructure Export Finance Deal of the Year.
“These accolades underline not just the quality and innovativeness of the project but also the significance of the international cooperation between financial institutions, export credit agencies and industrial partners,” observes Vira Tsymbalyuk.
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