Construction in Istanbul relies on tower cranes
12 December 2008Istanbul’s skyline is being changed forever as the boom for shopping and residential towers continues.
There are currently 47 such complexes in the city, but the 21 projects currently underway mean that approaching a million square metres of Istanbul’s space will be taken up by shopping and residential towers by 2011.
Six Liebherr tower cranes are currently on-site at one such project – the new Buyaka shopping, recreational and residential complex which is being constructed at Artell Koytur in Istanbul, next to the city’s major IKEA furniture outlet.
The main contractor for this ambitious project is Tepe Insaat, the Ankara-headquartered operation which has been responsible for many big Turkish projects including Istanbul’s Ataturk airport and the 59-storey-high, US$190 million Is Bank directorate general complex, also in Istanbul. Tepe Insaat has also recently completed building the new airports at Cairo, Egypt and Doha in Qatar.
The Buyaka Artell Koytur complex covers an area of 250,000 sq m and required some 400,000 sq m of initial excavation work. Four towers will form the corner posts of the complex.
Each of these is 22 storeys and 120m high. The first four levels will make up the shopping centre covering a total area of 50,000 sq m.
In addition to the shopping centre and housing, the Buyaka complex will also accommodate a sports centre. Covering an area of 200,000 sq m, this will be one of the largest in Turkey.
Murat Ankara, Tepe Insaat’s Technical Co-ordination Manager for the project, said approximately 350 workers are involved in the construction work which commenced in June 2008 and is scheduled for completion in 2010. It will involve 21,000 tonnes of steel and 160,000 cu m of concrete. In addition, 500,000sq m of formwork is being employed.
“Tepe Insaat is a firm believer in the reliability and high quality of Liebherr cranes,” said Ankara. “We employ them on all our major contracts.”
Five of the tower cranes working at the Artell Koytur site are the company’s own – two 154 EC-H 6 FR.tronic and two 132 EC-H 8 FR-tronic top slewing types, a 130 EC-B6 Flat-Top model. The sixth crane,154 HC has been hired from Atilla Dural, Liebherr’s representative for sales, hire and service in Istanbul .
