A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Prime Minister Erdoğan has announced his grand new campaign promise: He's going to build a second Bosphorus.
“Turkey deserves a crazy, magnificent project like this by 2023,” he said, referring to the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the Turkish Republic.
Now that I'm over being speechless, I should say that the Bosphorus shipping problem is very real. As I wrote in 2008,
In the past five years, cargo traffic through the Black Sea has risen by nearly 500 per cent; the flow of oil from the port of Novorossysk has more than doubled. Monstrous vessels full of oil, dangerous chemicals, nuclear waste and liquid gas - often skippered by drunken incompetents - have been pouring down from the Caucasus. Many of these tankers are rustbuckets that shouldn't be at sea, let alone passing right through the middle of a city of 15 million people. Because of the Montreux Convention, Turkey can't ban them.
I must say, this solution--just carving out a whole new Bosphorus--had never occurred to me. But when you think about it, it's such a simple way to solve the problem!
Erdoğan declined to give a cost estimate or exact location for the canal, saying they would be kept secret to “avoid any kind of negativity or injustice” before the project begins.
I suppose I shouldn't be completely cynical. The idea does have a kind of dream-big, think-outside-the-box beauty. Mind you, so did the Big Dig.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
But isn't he worried that Turkey might not just float away into the Black Sea like Dr. Doolittle's floating island?
Jan '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
The good news? No roof to collapse as the Big Dig's did...
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
And as our Google ads just reminded me, lots of new riverside property.
Jan '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
I will: The environmental-impact studies alone won't be completed by 2023, much less the permitting and lawsuit processes.
Feb '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
"The environmental-impact studies alone won't be completed by 2023, much less the permitting and lawsuit processes"
et tu, Turkey?
Jan '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Yeah, no prospective homeowner in their right mind wouldn't pay a premium for a porch-side view of all those rustbuckets full of hazardous chemicals and waste steaming on by, piloted by their drunken captains and/or crew Why, the smell alone would be worth it!
Edited on Apr 27, 2011 at 8:55amJan '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
It is a mad idea but the problem does not appear to be that the new canal would be wider and straighter so should allow more traffic and be easier to navigate but that is not the real problem. If you have badly maintained ships captained by drunkards isn't that the problem? Turkey has the advantage that it will be able to do this without too much interference but how would it manage the new canal to make any money from the investment that will clearly be huge. The Channel Tunnel project which had been discussed since the 19th century is a civil engineering marvel to link the UK and France but economically will never make a profit.
Oct '10
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
If you've spent any time at all, Claire, back me up, you recognize just how much of the population center is right on the Bosporus. This is actually a problem given the cargo, and how little control Turkey can actually assert over the manning of the ships that travel through it. You can watch ships pass by relatively constantly all day long. And that city runs for miles along the shipping channel.
Keep in mind that the dig suggested here is mostly level farmland, with few high hills or mountains. That means probably no locks or other elevation changes. Essentially a long trench. It that be the actual case, and if the Montreaux Convention would allow the Turkish authorities to assign ship traffic to which path to the Sea of Marmara.
Budget practicality may be another issue.
Mar '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
As an engineer, and not having been graced with the more detailed survey of history a BA might have provided, I wonder what the popular consensus was with many of the other large "Marvels of Man" projects from the recent past? Panama canal (which they are enlarging) Erie, Suez & St Petersburg Canals; The Boulder, Hoover, & Aswan Dams, (Three Gores Dam might be too contemporary). Did they all have a near consensus that these were signs of modern progressive societies? Was there an EPA to say stop until you fill out the impact forms? It seems to me that the ability for these types of projects are not possible any longer, irrespective of the benefits, when a very vocal minority can stand athwart and say stop.
Dec '10
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Jordan and Israel have been dreaming of their own Big Dig for quite a while - they just can't decide whether to cooperate or compete on it.
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Roosevelt: "...I took the isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me."
Aug '10
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
A bit off topic, a gem from Guy Steele:
A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal -- Panama
May '10
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
I like these sorts of bold projects. Beats the heck out of high speed rail.
Get your land cheep now, Clair.
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Mark Woodworth: A bit off topic, a gem from Guy Steele:
A man, a plan, a canoe, pasta, heros, rajahs, a coloratura, maps, snipe, percale, macaroni, a gag, a banana bag, a tan, a tag, a banana bag again (or a camel), a crepe, pins, Spam, a rut, a Rolo, cash, a jar, sore hats, a peon, a canal -- Panama · Apr 27 at 10:18am
Remind me one day to tell you about the best palindrome ever, ever, ever.
Mar '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Looking at the illusration: Is that a canal or a moat?
Sep '10
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Wouldn't it be simplier and cheaper to widen and/or modernize the Bosphorus?
Convert it from a Super-two into a 12-lane superhighway.
(Added note--Upon reading Claire's article, um, guess not. It's too crowded -- the logistics of widening the existing Bos would be much harder to deal with than building another one.)
Edited on Apr 27, 2011 at 12:28pmJul '10
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Destroy everything within 25km? How many megatons of explosive capacity are these unpiloted hulks again? And what pilots there are are drunk? Darwin is obviously busy solving this problem at his own pace.
In some places, the loss of life as experienced in the several accidents cited would be considered grounds to re-examine the terms of the treaty.
This all must make for very interesting swimming parties.
Mar '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Dan Holmes: Wouldn't it be simplier and cheaper to widen and/or modernize the Bosphorus?
Convert it from a Super-two into a 12-lane superhighway.
(Added note--Upon reading Claire's article, um, guess not. It's too crowded -- the logistics of widening the existing Bos would be much harder to deal with than building another one.) · Apr 27 at 12:13pm
Edited on Apr 27 at 12:28 pm
On the basis of my extensive knowledge of TV documentaries and travel shows I believe a huge part of the danger is that a transiting tanker will collide with cross Bosphorus traffic, like a ferry.
The Bosphorus is narrower than the English Channel.
May '10
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
You can (sort of) watch traffic in the Bosporus here.
Feb '11
Re: A Man, a Plan, a Canal--Istanbul's Own Big Dig!
Compared to the real Big Dig, the new canal throught relatively level farmland should be easy. Boston's Big Dig went under an existing city with utilities, subways and generations of soft fill to deal with. Add in the real improvement in safety and probably more capacity and better speed for shipping and the canal looks like a very good bet. The Swiss just finished a rail tunnel through hard rock they've been working on for a decade. This canal would benefit Europe, oil producers and Turkey and financing probably wouldn't be a problem, despite the cost. (The Big Dig, mostly for convenience and aesthetics, is costing $20 billion (costs still edging up).