About the only phrase guaranteed to cross Istanbul’s linguistic barriers is “trafik problem,” the despondent opening line of many taxi drivers. For some, it provides the excuse to take a circuitous and more expensive route. Yet the city’s congestion problems place it in a premier league that includes such places as Manhattan, Mumbai, Moscow… and the coastal highway heading north from Beirut on a Friday after work.
Solutions are not easy, not least because the Turkish metropolis is in an earthquake prone area. They are also, of course, expensive. However, a rash of projects to get the city on the move has been announced in the past few months. Simplest among them would be a greater use of the Bosphorus to transport commuters who want to travel up or down one side rather than cross it, as around one million people do every day on either ferries or motor transport over one of the two bridges.
Reminiscent of similar ideas to connect Jounieh and Byblos with Beirut, its success will doubtless depend on feeder road transport to distribute the commuters to the exact places they want to go. When he introduced the service last December, the Mayor of Istanbul, Kadir Topba?, said: “People will prefer these two routes to avoid traffic jams on both sides of the strait and have a more comfortable trip.” Indeed they will, much more so than when he took the controls of a tram on New Year’s Eve to launch an enhanced service there as well.
The first dozen new trams began running on that day, increasing the frequency of services between Kabata?, close to the city center, and Zeytinburnu, in the direction of Ataturk Airport. The route passes through the packed and now mainly pedestrianized Sultanahmet district, which contains Topkapi Palace and the Blue Mosque.
“Due to the lack of trams, commuters were experiencing hardships. By providing 37 new low-lying cars furnished with advanced technology and air-conditioning, we will smooth the commute,” said Topba?, before piloting one of the shiny new units. His driving skills proved to be less accomplished than his administrative abilities in trying to solve congestion. Topba? applied the brakes too sharply, causing his passengers from the local press corps to fall on the floor. Although the grumbling reporters complained of a few bruises, the greater injury was possibly to the mayor’s pride.
The $96.1 million cost of the trams is but petty cash compared with the mega-projects to build a third bridge across the Bosphorus, as well as a remarkable tunnel to carry both vehicles and high-speed trains. Tenders for the bridge project, estimated to cost around $6 billion, are scheduled to go out this month.
Even with the prospect of “losing” 20,000 vehicles transiting Istanbul every day, not everyone is happy. The site for the new bridge will mean devastating areas of forest on the banks of the Bosphorus, especially on the Anatolian side, and has already led to an increase in property speculation on the grounds that neighboring green areas will be opened up for development.
An assurance from Mehmet Cahit Turhan, who oversees the General Directorate of Highways, that an environmental impact assessment would be carried out before construction got under way, failed to convince the critics. “This will be carried out by the company that wins the tender,” Turhan said. As one columnist wryly observed, this is tantamount to asking a wolf to guard sheep.
In engineering terms, the most remarkable project has to be the Marmaray, a tunnel under the Bosphorus. It will be five kilo meters long and run up to 60 meters below ground. Since the location is in a high-risk earthquake zone, it will be constructed to withstand shocks of up to nine on the Richter scale. Stations and infrastructure are being built underneath newly unearthed historical sites that show Istanbul to have been inhabited 8,500 years ago, more than three times as long as previously thought. Scheduled for completion in less than five years, the tunnel will be designed for both vehicles and a high-speed rail link to bring commuters into the city.
“The Marmaray is a huge, extremely complex and exciting project — I can’t think of any challenge this project lacks,” says Jens Peter Henrichsen, project manager from Avrasyaconsult, the joint venture preparing the project and overseeing construction. It’s not yet clear if those challenges are thought to include the Mayor of Istanbul operating the first train through it.
PETER GRIMSDITCH is EXECUTIVE’S Istanbul correspondent
