HizRay Project Design Workshop Inaugurated

A Design Workshop for the 74.5 km-long brand-new HizRay Project, scheduled to be constructed shortly by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Rail System Directorate, was inaugurated on 8 November 2022 in Istanbul.

Four Hundred representatives comprising the technical staff of the Rail System Directorate, project firms and the technical team in the preparation of the HizRay Project and board members of the Istanbul Branch of the Chamber of Mining Engineers participated in the workshop.

The workshop began with the opening speech of Assoc. Prof. Dr Pelin Alpkökin, head of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Rail System Directorate. In the workshop, presentations were on a wide range of topics such as project finance, selection of the route, tunnel section, number of tunnel boring machines to be operated, determining of the construction sites, integrating into the current metro lines, R&D studies and BIM applications.

The project is a 74.5 km-long rail system transportation project from one end of Istanbul to the other.

27 tunnel boring machines are scheduled to be operated in the project, 26 EPB-type boring machines for the European and Asian sides of Istanbul for underground tunnel borings, and one slurry-type machine for the Bosphorus passage will be intended to be used.

• The project’s tunnels are scheduled to designed as double tubes and a single tube for the Bosphorus passage.
• Length of the Bosphorus passage was reported as 1580 meters.
• The project is scheduled to be bored about 7.67 million m3 from double tube TBM tunnel with a diameter of 5.7 m at 65.2 km and a single tube with 9.8 m diameter at 3.39 km.
• As expected, the project designs will be finished at the beginning of 2023, the tender will be made within the same year, and the building will begin in 2024.

The detailed technical information of the HizRay Project will be revealed in the 5th Underground Excavations Symposium and Exhibition (UYAK2023), which is said to be held on March 9-10-11, 2023 in Istanbul by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Rail System Directorate and TMMOB Chamber of Mining Engineers Istanbul Branch.