Marmaray: a geopolitical Challenge
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Marmaray: A Geopolitical ChallengeMarmaray is a rail transport project in Istanbul. It consists of the construction of an undersea rail tunnel under the Bhosforus Strait as well as the modernization of suburban rail lines along the Sea of Marmara from Halkali on the European side to Gebze on the Asian side. The procurement of new rolling stock for suburban passenger traffic is also part of the project. Construction started in 2004, with a target opening date of October 29, 2013. After multiple delays, the projected opening date (as of early 2012) is June 18, 2015. The name Marmaray (Marmarail) comes from combining the name of the Sea of Marmara, which lies just south of the project site, withray, the Turkish word for rail. The projectThe project includes a 13.6 kilometres Bosphorus crossing, the upgrade of 63 kilometres of suburban train lines to create a 76.3 km high-capacity line between Gebze and Halkalı and the provision of 440 rail cars. The Bosphorus (Istanbul Strait) will be crossed by a 1.4 kilometres long earthquake-proofed immersed tube, assembled from 11 sections, eight are 135 metres two are 98.5 metres and one element is 110 metres long.The elements are weighing up to 18,000 tons. The sections will be placed down to 60 metres below sea level: 55 metres of water and 4.6 metres of earth. This underwater tube will be accessed by bored tunnels from Kazlıçeşme on the European side and Ayrılıkçeşme on the Asian side of Istanbul. When completed, it will be the world's deepest undersea immersed tube tunnel. New underground stations will be built at Yenikapı, Sirkeci, and Üsküdar. 37 other above-ground stations along the line will be rebuilt or refurbished. Construction of the Marmaray project started in May 2004. The Marmaray tunnel was completed on the 23rd of September 2008. After completion, the usage of rail transportation in Istanbul is predicted to rise from 3.6% to 27.7%. Rolling stockHyundai announced on November 11, 2008, that it had signed a € 580m contract to supply the rolling stock for the Marmaray cross-Bosporus tunnel project in Istanbul. The Korean firm had competition from shortlisted bidders Alstom, CAF and a consortium of Bombardier, Siemens and Nurol for the 440-vehicle contract which was placed by the Ministry of Transport's General Directorate of Railways, Harbours & Airports. .
DelaysThe project is currently four years behind schedule, largely due to the discovery of a Byzantine-era archaeological find on the proposed site of the European tunnel terminal in 2005. The suburban rail upgrade section of the project, known originally as CR1, faltered and is undergoing a re-tendering process due to attract bids in early 2011. The original CR1 consortium (AMD Rail Consortium) consisted of Japan's Marubeni, Turkey's Dogus Insaat and France's Alstom. Tunnel construction is only about 18 kilometres from the active North Anatolian Fault. Scientific calculations estimate the probability that at some time in the next 30 years the area will suffer an earthquake of strength 7.0 or more produced an outcome of 77 percent. The waterlogged, silty soil on which the tunnel is being constructed has been known to liquefy during an earthquake; to solve this problem, engineers are injecting industrial grout down to 24 metres below the seabed to keep it stable. The walls of the tunnel will be made of waterproof concrete coated with a steel shell, each independently watertight. The tunnel is made to flex and bend similar to the way tall buildings are constructed to react if an earthquake hits. Floodgates at the joints of the tunnel are able to close and isolate water in the event of the walls' failure. FinancingThe Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the European Investment Bank have provided major financing for the project. As of April 2006, JICA had lent 111 billion yen and EIB 1.05 billion euro. The total cost of the project is expected to be approximately 2.5 billion US dollars. As of late 2009, costs were expected to increase by approximately 500 million US dollars due to the archaeological delays. The Geopolitical Dimension of MarmarayChina and Turkey are in discussions to build a new high-speed railway link across Turkey. If completed it would be the country's largest railway project. The proposed rail link would run from Kars on the easternmost border with Armenia, through the Turkish interior on to Istanbul where it would connect to the Marmaray rail tunnel now under construction that runs under the Bosphorus strait. Then it would continue to Edirne near the border to Greece and Bulgaria in the European Union. It will cost an estimated $35 billion. The realization of the Turkish link would complete a Chinese Trans-Eurasian Rail Bridge project that would bring freight from China to Spain and England. The Kars-Edirne line would reduce travel time across Turkey by two-thirds from 36 hours down to 12. In addition a Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway connecting Azerbaijan's capital of Baku to Kars is under construction, which greatly increases the strategic importance of the Edirne-Kars line. For China it would put a critical new link in its railway infrastructure across Eurasia to markets in Europe and beyond. The essential element to building new markets is building infrastructure, and for the vast landmass of Eurasia railroad linkages, ideally high-speed rail links, are essential to those new markets and the fastest way to economic prosperity for all concerned. For the economically depressed countries of the European Union, joining in the infrastructure linkages with the growing economies of Eurasia offers a real way out of the present crisis. The Turkish-China railway discussion is part of a vast Chinese strategy to weave a network of inland rail connections across the Eurasian Continent. The aim is to literally create the world’s greatest new economic space and in turn a huge new market for not just China but all Eurasian countries, the Middle East and Western Europe. The demand for faster rail transport over the vast Eurasian distances is clear. China’s container port activity and that of its European and North American destinations is reaching a saturation point as volumes of container traffic explode at double-digit rates. Singapore recently displaced Rotterdam as the world’s largest port in volume terms. The growth rate for container port throughput in China in 2006, before outbreak of the world financial crisis was some 25% annually. The Turkish Kars-Edirne railway would form an integral part of an entire web of Chinese-initiated rail corridors across the Eurasian landmass. Following the example of how rail infrastructure transformed the economic space of Europe and later of America during the late 19th Century, the Chinese government, which today stands as the world’s most efficient railroad constructor, has quietly been extending its rail links into Central Asia and beyond for several years. Source: Wikipedia – MarketOracle – Marmaray Website |