Showcasing Turkey’s Emerging Market

 

The 2015 International No-Dig Show will take place Sept. 28-30 in Istanbul, a city with 8,500 years of a glamorous history. Istanbul has always been an important metropolis from its earliest days, including serving as the former capital of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. The city holds precious ancient monuments, and possesses a unique beauty with the Bosphorus running across the city separating Europe and Asia.

The 2015 International No-Dig Show will be hosted by the Turkish Society for Infrastructure and Trenchless Technology (TSITT), which was established in 2010. Several successful national trenchless and tunneling shows have been held since 2011. Leaders have recognized the importance of trenchless and tunneling, including Dr. Veysel Eroglu, Turkish Minister for Water Affairs, who stated that “trenchless technology is a must for all of Turkey,” and Istanbul Mayor Dr. Kadir Topbas, who, supporting the trenchless solutions for Istanbul, was re-elected as the president of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) through 2016.

The Turkish market provides several opportunities for microtunneling, HDD and rehabilitation companies. Ongoing microtunneling projects in Istanbul include:

•             Buyukcekmece Wastewater Tunnel Construction Project

–          Date of commencement: Dec. 1, 2011

–          Date of completion: Nov. 28, 2016

–          Diameter of tunnel: 2,000 mm OD

–          Length of tunnel: 7, 351 m

 

•             Galata Cendere Baltalimani Wastewater Tunnel Construction Project

–          Date of commencement: April 1, 2013

–          Date of completion: March 31, 2018

–          Diameter of tunnel: 3,600 mm OD

–          Length of tunnel: 8,000 m

 

•             Tuzla Akfirat Wastewater Tunnel Construction Project

–          Date of commencement: April 19, 2013

–          Date of completion: Oct. 20, 2016

–          Diameter of tunnel: 2,200 mm OD

–          Length of tunnel: 8,125 m

 

•             Kazlicesme Cirpici Wastewater Tunnel Construction Project

–          Date of commencement: July 31, 2014

–          Date of completion: July 30, 2019

–          Diameter of tunnel: 3,000 mm OD

–          Length of tunnel: 1,969 m

 

A new microtunneling tender has been recently announced in Istanbul. The tender is for a 4-m diameter potable water transmission tunnel, which will be constructed on the European side of Istanbul using a TBM. A 3-m diameter steel pipeline will then be installed within this water transmission tunnel. The total length of the project is 15.4 km. The prequalification meeting for the tender was held on April 29.

TANAP (Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project), which has an estimated project cost of $11.7 billion, is about to start. The 56-in. pipeline will be installed with a total length of 1,841 km through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece and Italy, with 1,334 km of this pipeline installed inside Turkey. On March 10, 2015, TSITT visited the general manager of TANAP in Ankara and received its support for the 2015 International No-Dig Show. The groundbreaking ceremony of TANAP was held on March 17, 2015. The presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia were in the attendance in the ceremony. It is expected there will be huge HDD crossings during the installation of pipelines and those major crossings may cost more than $50 million. As no such 56-in. HDD installation have been done before in Turkey, there does not exist large size HDD rigs and experienced operators in Turkey. The TANAP project presents an opportunity for global HDD rig manufacturers and HDD contractors to cooperate with local contracting companies.

Dr Eroglu, who made the keynote speech at No-Dig Turkey Summit in 2011, published a new regulation for Water Loss Management on May 8, 2014. Based on official statistics, the current water loss ratio of Istanbul is 24 percent and the average water loss ratio of Turkey is 40 percent. According to this regulation, the water utilities are obliged to significantly decrease their water losses to the certain amounts in two phases (the first phase covers five years and the second phase covers the following four years). If utilities cannot achieve the goals stated in the regulation, then the Ministry will apply penalties. Therefore, the condition assessment (CCTV and leak detection), GPR, rehabilitation, replacement, hydraulic modelling, and design of water mains have become very important for Turkish utilities. The first tender for water loss management was announced by ISU (Kocaeli Water and Wastewater Administration) – a neighbor city of Istanbul. The contract included CCTV, leak detection, GPR, rehabilitation, replacement, hydraulic modelling and district meter area (DMA) design of 1,030 km water mains. The tender meeting was held on March 25, 2015. The water loss control investments in Turkey are expected to reach $2 billion in the upcoming years.

The 2015 International No-Dig Show will be a great platform to meet the stakeholders of the above mentioned projects. For more details, please visit www.nodigistanbul.com

Yasin Torun is a consultant and the chairman of the Turkish Society for Infrastructure and Trenchless Technology.