Environmental problems caused by Istanbul subway excavation and suggestions for remediation

Abstract

Many environmental problems caused by subway excavations have inevitably become an important point in city life. These problems can be categorized as transporting and stocking of excavated material, traffic jams, noise, vibrations, piles of dust mud and lack of supplies. Although these problems cause many difficulties, the most pressing for a big city like Istanbul is excavation, since other listed difficulties result from it. Moreover, these problems are environmentally and regionally restricted to the period over which construction projects are underway and disappear when construction is finished. Currently, in Istanbul, there are nine subway construction projects in operation, covering approximately 73 km in length; over 200 km to be constructed in the near future. The amount of material excavated from ongoing construction projects covers approximately 12 million m(3). In this study, problems-primarily, the problem with excavation waste (EW)-caused by subway excavation are analyzed and suggestions for remediation are offered.