TURKEY: Excavation of the first major tunnel for the Ankara – Izmir high speed line was completed on October 16, with a holing-through ceremony presided over by Transport Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu.
Speaking at the event, , Karaismailoğlu said the 3 005 m tunnel T1 on the Eşme - Salihli section of the route had been completed in a ‘record’ 206 days. With an internal diameter of 12∙5 m, T1 is the largest tunnel in the country to have been excavated using a tunnel boring machine. The bore will is intended to accommodate two levels, with the upper deck carrying the double-track railway and the lower a service road for emergency access.
According to Karaismailoğlu, the 74 km Eşme – Salihli section requires construction of 21 viaducts and 25 tunnels in total. He reported that work was 42% complete, but did not provide an update on the expected timescale for completion.
Previous government announcements had suggested the first section from the junction with the existing Ankara – Konya corridor at Polatlı as far as Afyonkarahisar would open by the end of 2022, followed by Afyonkarahisar – Menemen by the end of 2023. Menemen is just north of Izmir, where the high speed services would rejoin the existing network to reach the city centre via the recently upgraded Izban corridor.
Some other sections of the existing line will are initially expected to remain in use, so that trains will be able to link the two cities by the end of 2023, the symbolically important deadline marking 100 years of the modern Turkish republic.
Requiring a total of 503∙2 km of new construction, the direct line will reduce the overall distance by rail between the capital and Izmir from 824 km to 620 km. End-to-end journey times is expected to be cut from 14 h to around 3 h 30 min. The high speed line will serve five intermediate stations at Afyonkarahisar, Uşak, Salihli, Turgutlu and Manisa.
Work on the project started in 2013 but has been subject to significant delay. Tendering of the civil works contracts for around 300 km of the alignment has still to be completed. Construction of the route between Eşme and Salihli is being undertaken by a consortium of Bayburt Grup and Kolin. The 86 km Banaz – Esme and 26 km Manisa – Menemen sections are being built by AGA Energy while the 17∙5 km Sahlili – Manisa section has been subcontracted to a consortium of NAS and Budakyol.
