trailer world Issue One 2013

Issue One 2013 11 Reportage Top: A catamaran towed the eleven tunnel sections from the ship- yard to the location where they were sunk. Using GPS, the techni- cians are able to position the sections at depth in the Bosphorus. Left and far left: From two sides the tunnel drilling machine has burrowed through the earth, in order to complete the 100 year project. The sunken tunnel elements and the drilled tunnel will be bound with a special rubberised material. This cushions against earthquakes up to 7.4 on the Richter scale. vice versa,” explains structural engineer Selami Isik. The construc- tion work has already started. The companies involved have already moved enormous quantities of material and machinery for building of the Marmaray Project. They have installed about 430,000 cubic metres of concrete and 35 tonnes of steel, and dug out something like 956,000 cubic metres using the tunnel drilling machines. The Turkish logistics company, Öznakliyat, is the prime contractor for transporting the total of five tunnel drilling machines, and is re- sponsible for customs clearance, stocking material and returning used machine parts to Japan. We delivered the first tunnel drill- ing machine in February 2006,” explains Feliz Bozat, the project manager at Öznakliyat, who has looked after the project right from the start. A Japanese transport company delivered the machines to Haydarpaşa, Istanbul’s port, she explains. Öznakliyat then took over the job of transporting the machines to the building site. “The machines came here dismantled into eight parts,” remembers Bo- zat. They had to be assembled on site; they have a diameter of more than eight metres. Machines of this size cannot be transported through the narrow streets of Istanbul. Archaeological finds delayed completion of the project by several years “Delivering a tunnel drilling machine to the new metro station in Sirkeci last year proved particularly difficult,” says project manager Bozat. The station is located on the historical peninsula of Sultan- ahmet in the immediate vicinity of the Topkapi Palace and Hagia Sophia, the famous emblem of Istanbul. Öznakliyat had to remove obstructions from the route and restore them after the trans- Title

trailer world Issue One 2013

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