Construction: road sections temporary closed | Warning

We left Kalaikhum at 5:00 and the first roadwork sites were open. We only had to wait once for 40 mins at 9:00 at 38.2616,71.3703 but we were let through after 40 mins of waiting.
There didn't seem to be much activity on the construction sites, perhaps because it was Saturday.

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In total, it's about 240 km from Khalai Khumb to Khorugh and for a bit more than 100 km of it they are currently turning the formerly small mountain road into a proper highway.
The construction site starts immediately behind Kalai Khumb (38.45037, 70.79339) and lasts until about 100 km later (38.15959, 71.37697).

Road Closures:
Road signs tell you, this 100 km section is closed 6.30am–12pm and 1pm–6pm ("closed hours"). Luckily, that's not really the case.

They are not working _everywhere_ along these 100 km at the same time, but only at a few places, maybe about 10. Here, they are usually blasting rocks and then cleaning up the road again. These places are between 50 m and a few kilometers long each and only these places are actually closed for traffic during the closed hours. But even here, they might sometimes open even during closed hours and quickly let through the queueing vehicles, if their work permits.

As cyclists, you are often let through, even if cars/trucks have to wait. In the end, of these 10 places, we as cyclists were let through at about 7 immediately. At the other three, we had to wait, but never more than 20 min. Then they either quickly opened for all vehicles, or they suddendly decided that we as cyclists maybe shouldn't have to wait for the official opening at 12pm or 6pm. It happened twice that they first said we'll have to wait with the cars/trucks for hours until the official opening, but then suddendly after some minutes they changed their mind and let us through. So, always go to the front and show yourself waiting there. (Of course, we can't guarantee that you will not have to wait for hours. It's about optimizing your chances.)

Big Road Closure Places:
The biggest of the 10 places, where the haviest work was carried out, were the following two. Here, the risk of having to wait even as cyclists seems highest:

– 38.39917, 71.14942
– 38.33699, 71.20629

Road Quality (in 100 km Road Work Section):
The road is at least 90% gravel. If not, it's the old asphalt of the old road, which is still visible sometimes. Nothing has been newly paved yet. The parts that are already prepared to put asphalt on are usually gravel of okay quality. The rest is pretty bad/bumpy. And it's a constant up and down, of course (there's apparently no other way to build a road along a river ...).

Probably the biggest annoyance is, it's _incredibly_ dusty everywhere within these 100 km. Every car and truck produces an enormeous dust cloud. Hope for wind from right (or maybe for a little bit of rain) and consider bringing a face mask.

Traffic:
Despite it is handled not so strict in reality, cars/trucks can only _be sure_ to get through the road closures outside the closed hours. Therefore, traffic raises significantly during these times everywhere along the 100 km section. Therefore, I'd heavily recommend to mainly cycle during the closed hours. Here, traffic is pretty low usually – maybe one vehicle every 10–20 min (but always hard to estimate this :-D).

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Still roadworks in the region. We had to stop for the first time just before this spot (coming from Kalaikhum). We were there at 10.20 am and were allowed to continue at 2 pm. A little behind this spot came the next construction site. We were here at around 3.30 pm and had to wait until 6 pm to continue. There was another roadworks until Khorough, where we had to wait. The safest time to drive through is before 7 am and after 6 pm.

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Sunday: we could pass, along with many other cars and trucks... Short wait here and there due to minor works.

Start/end point of constructions (Khorog side) ~50km from this waypoint: Dashti Yazgulom village.

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Rode motorcycles from Kalaikhum to Khorog on August 27. Bottom line—no matter how you plan it out, it’s gonna be a long day. The roads are bad almost the whole way (though they are doable by motorbike, car, or push bike). There are lots of segments that the construction crews are working on and it’s hard to say where these start or end.

We set off at 04:30 from Khorog to attempt to get through the building works by 07:30 when they close for blasting. We got a puncture at 6:30, which slowed us significantly. We ended up getting stuck between blasting sites from 07:00 to 11:30 when they reopened the roads. They reclose the roads for construction from 13:00 to 18:09 but we were not stopped again so must have past the building works by 13:00. Only reached Khorog around 18:00.

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I'm a cyclist. I arrived at 3pm and they let me go with no problem

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Stuck at road construction at 15:13, hoping we get moving by 6 we will see....

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Same point, same text.
There are several areas for construction. After this point (direction Khorog) it takes 30km of work to the military checkpoint. Good luck.

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We were very lucky as we only needed to wait 5 minutes. We got here at 5PM and there were about 15 cars queuing before us. There were no other stops on the way from Kalaikhum before this one for us.

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Road constructions seem to have expanded. They stretch all the way to Kulai Kumb. Closing times are a little less clear and seem to vary. Just be aware of delays.

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In may 2023 there are some big construction projects going on. From this place untill the next checkpoint towards Korough you can expect closed roads from 7.00 untill 12.00 and again from 13.00 untill 18.30 hours. Cars and trucks will have to wait.

Sometimes you’re lucky and they let a few cars through. Motorbikes get waved through quicker or don’t have to stop at all.

But if you don’t want to risk waiting a long time, then plan your route accordingly. Oh and of course the road is not great in this section.

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