trailer world Issue One 2013

Issue One 2013 13 port to enable the low-loader to get through. In addition, the local electricity companies had to provide technicians to raise the over- head lines of the tramway, because some of the machine parts were more than five me- tres tall. “We worked for five nights to bring the machine to the building site,” says Bozat. Structural engineer Selami Isik also regards the station in Sirkeci as the greatest chal- lenge in the entire Marmaray Project. The two other new underground stations were built using the cut-and-cover principle: this involves digging an enormous hole, building the station in it and then cover- ing it over again. This was not possible in Sirkeci due to the dense concentration of buildings, which made it necessary for all machines and material to access the build- ing site via shafts, as the station is located 58 metres deep under the earth. Furthermore, archaeological finds pro- vided several years of delay. For example, an early Byzantine harbour from the 4th century AD was found during construction of the metro station in Yenikapi on the Eu- ropean side. According to the Taisei Group construction company, there was no special logistics concept. However, the engineers used areas in the immediate vicinity of the building sites for storage. In addition, the local councils of the affected districts of the city provided storage areas and warehouses. In Turkey, Öznakliyat has a total of 228,000 square metres of storage area for containers, 105,000 square metres of this in Istanbul alone. In 2012, the company achieved sales of 20 million US dollars, and owns 150 of its own trucks and trailers. In total, Öznakliyat transported 50,000 cubic metres of material for the Marmaray Project. Filiz Bozat was also responsible for trans- porting parts of the tunnel drilling machines back, because customs requirements meant they were not allowed to remain in the coun- try. The technicians have been working on the interior facilities of the stations for some time now. “We put in the escalators during the past few months,” explains Filiz Bozat. The route is to be officially opened on 30 September. With the Marmaray Project, only one of many major building sites will be completed. The next ones are already attracting attention: Istanbul is to get a third airport, and a canal will be built between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. The construction work for another tunnel under the Bosphorus has just begun. (sl) Building the station in Sirkeci on the historic Sultanahmet peninsu- la represented a challenge. All machines were lowered down into the earth to a depth of almost 60 metres through supply shafts (top left). Concrete sections for lining the tunnel walls were produced by a Turkish company and then delivered to the building site (top right). The prime contractor, Taisei, undertakes regular inspections (middle). The electrical supply still has to be completed, amongst other tasks, on the Asian side in Üsküdar (bottom left). ka The Marmaray Project  The Marmaray Project is one of the biggest infrastructure projects in Europe. The total network between Halkali on the European and Gebze on the Asian side covers 76 kilometres, of which 1.4 kilometres are in the buried tunnel elements on the sea bed of the Bosphorus. The builders had to dig just under 14 kilometres through the earth. The remainder of the route is above-ground. The price tag of the project is about 3.5 billion US dollars, partially financed by the European Investment Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Building work started in 2004 and the opening of the tunnel is planned for 30 September 2013. The capacity of a train will be around 3,500 passengers, and the system is expected to carry 75,000 people per hour. There are 40 stations along the network, three of them underground. The travel time between Üsküdar and Sirkeci will be only four minutes in future – whereas today it can take something like 30 minutes depending on traffic conditions or the means of transport (bus, car or ferry). TitlePhotos:AgataSkowronek A second tunnel is already being planned

trailer world Issue One 2013

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