Reconstruction of the Karakoram Highway the China-Pakistan Friendship Tunnels can be traced to 2013, when China began construction on a bypass of Attabad Lake with a combination of 5 km worth of tunnels, two large bridges, and 78 small bridges to bypass the lake which had been formed after a 2010 earthquake triggered massive landslides. The resulting landslides cut off both the Indus River and Karakoram Highway resulting in the formation of the reservoir. Prior to completion of the bypass, all vehicular traffic had to be loaded onto barges to traverse the new reservoir. Construction of the tunnels began in 2012 and required 36 months
S-1 Strategic Highway Project has been facing delays since 2008. Repairing and widening has still not begun, despite an announcement by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in April 2015, during his visit to Gilgit. The proposed Gilgit-Skardu Expressway plans to rebuild the entire highway at a cost of . As of September 2017, construction had started. S-1 Strategic Highway Strategic Highway 1 (S-1) or more popularly known as Gilgit–Skardu Road (Urdu, Shina, Balti: ) or Skardu Road is a 167 km long Strategic Highway linking Gilgit with Skardu in Gilgit-Baltistan territory. The highway begins south of Gilgit on the N-35 National Highway (Karakoram Highway),