Originally Posted by
chevvron
If you go to Cyprus, try driving along the motorways from Limassol to Nicosia and Larnaca. First time I did this was in 1990 with a Cypriot friend going to Nicosia; he kept asking 'could you land an F16 just here?'
Then I saw what he meant. Suddenly, the two carriageways 'lost' the shallow trench between them and the central crash barrier was replaced by one which slotted into the road surface. This lasted for about 2km (twice) and at each end there were concrete hardstandings and white rectangular markings on the 'road' surface, plus the road signs were on huge hinges so they could be lowered.
There is another section like this just east of where the Nicosia and Larnaca motorways diverge on the Larnaca section (c1992).
Quite a lot of countries have emergency 'war' airstrips on stretches of highway - they are quite common in former Yugoslavia and in Scandinavia, to my knowledge, and I've seen sections of highway in Iraq and Syria that could be the same.