Too Ashu Pass it is the magnificent place situated 135 km from Bishkek city, on the highway connecting the north and south capitals of the country. The height of the pass is 3400 m. The road in this place really is breathtaking, and the traveler’s eyes open indescribable mountain scenery.
Here blows a strong wind, and the mountains are covered with ice caps whole the year. But the air on the pass is uniquely fresh and clean, and each person inhaling it understands that this air, he never met. On the southern slope of the Too Ashu located ski resort, popular among skiers and snowboarders in the winter. Past from the pass Too Ashu begins the Susamyr valley.
Also the pass has it’s own tonnel. The Kolbaev Tunnel is a strategically important facility on the Bishkek-Osh motorway that connects the northern and southern regions of the republic. located at an altitude of 3,200 metres above sea level, 2.6 km long, 5.8 m high, with a roadbed width of 6.6 m, which was built in 1962, with the last reconstruction in 2000.
The technical parameters of this tunnel allow the passage of freight vehicles only in one-way mode. The maximum intensity of traffic on the Bishkek-Osh road in summer period reaches 6000 vehicles per day and taking into account the annual growth rate of 3-5% of freight traffic intensity, the reserve capacity of the tunnel according to preliminary calculations is 7-8 years.
The complex geographical location of the tunnel, systematic accumulation of vehicles, difficulty in ensuring two-way traffic, occurrence of traffic accidents were the reasons for the obsolescence of the tunnel, preventing not only the increased over the past decades safe cargo and passenger traffic in this direction, but also increasing the operational costs of the tunnel.
