Marmaray

Marmaray is the name of a railway project of tunnel to connect the parts European and Asian of Istanbul through the the Bosphorus. The name Marmaray (Marmara Rail) comes from the association of the names of the Marmara Sea, located just at the south of the project, and ray , which means Turkish rail in .

The project includes/understands a tunnel of 13,6 km with crossing of the Bosphorus as well as the extension of 63 km line ferrovaire of the grid system sururbain to create a line with high capacity of 76,3 km between Gebze and Halkalı. The Bosphorus will be crossed by a 1,4 km length antiseismic submerged tube, assembly of 11 sections of 123 meters, weighing more than 18.000 tons. Its sections will be buried with 60 meters under the sea level, 55 meters of water and 4,5 meters of ground. The tube will be connected to two tunnels dug since Kazlıçeşme European side and Ayrılıkçeşme Asian side, these 2 tunnels represent an overall length of 9,8 km, to which 2,4 km of covered trench will be added.

Construction began in May 2004 and is designed to be completed in 2012. It should make pass the share of the rail in the transport of Istambul from 3,6% to 27,7%.

The tunnel is located at less than twenty kilometers of the Faille north-Anatolian, seismic zone active worrying engineers and seismologists. Since 342 after JC, the area was struck by a dozen major earthquakes having killed more than 10.000 people. The scientists estimate the risk which the area is struck by an earthquake of level 7 or more in the 30 years is of 77%. The muddy ground gorged with water on which is being posed the tube is known to be liquefied during an earthquake, also the engineers inject they in the marine ground a purée containing cement on 25 meters of depth. The walls of the tunnel will be carried out in a tight concrete and a steel hull. The tunnel is designed to be flexible and to be curved with the manner of a skyscraper if an earthquake occurs. Tight doors, at the joints of the sections, will be able to be closed again quickly in the event of flood of the tunnel.

Source

External bonds

Official site of Marmaray
Site of the Marmaray laboratory of the technical university of technical Istanbul
Description of Marmaray on Tunnelbuilder
Video on You Tubes explaining the construction of the tunnel

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