Inauguration of the Marmaray tunnel linking the continents of Europe and Asia

The works undertaken in the BC1 sector of the Marmaray Project -the railway corridor connecting the continents of Europe and Asia through an undersea tunnel under the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul- were inaugurated on the 29th of October, coinciding with the events commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey’s constitution. 

OHL leads the joint venture with a 70% stake (in conjunction with the Spanish railway signaling firm, Dimetronic) that was awarded the CR3 contract in the Marmaray Project. The tender submitted by OHL on February 28, 2011 was the most competitive among the five international consortiums participating in the bidding process for the project. The contract budget totaled 1 billion euros (exclusive of VAT), an amount that places this contract among the largest in terms of economic volume ever concluded by the OHL Group.

The scope of the CR3 contract includes the performance of work on the overhead line, substations, signaling, telecommunications and the automatic ticketing system of the BC1 sector, among others, as well as the complete 64-km “turnkey” railway infrastructure and superstructure (20 km on the European side and 44 on the Asian side) of the three-track railway corridor (two tracks for the commuter train system and one for the intercity and freight), connecting the tunnel under the Bosporus (BC1) to the railway network of both continents.  

The inaugural ceremony was attended by the Turkish President and Prime Minister, Abdüllah Gul and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the heads of government of Japan and Romania, Shinzo Abe and Víctor Ponta, and the Spanish Minister of Development, Ana Pastor. The OHL Group was represented by its Chairman, Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, the Second Deputy Chairman and CEO of OHL, Josep Piqué, and the Chairman-General Manager of OHL Construcción, Francisco Marín, among others.

Link between two continents

The Marmaray railway corridor is a part of a project for the construction of a 78-km-long railway line designed to deliver improved transportation service. The BC1 section inaugurated extends over a distance of 13.6 km, in which 1.4 km run under the Bosporus Strait in the city of Istanbul. Its construction 60 m under the surface of the sea makes it the second deepest tunnel in the world, after the Seikan tunnel in Japan.

The Marmaray corridor will accommodate commuter train services operated by the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) and is expected to be used daily by 1.5 million passengers. Likewise, plans are in place for using part of the infrastructure for long-distance rail traffic, both high-speed passenger service as well as freight.

The scope of the work under the CR3 contract, awarded to the joint venture led by OHL, also includes the construction of 37 new stations, the laying of 340 km of new single track, the complete replacement of the signaling and communications system in all of the sections or their adaptation to the European high-speed systems for the purpose of ensuring interoperability. In this way, the works under the CR3 contract will make it possible to connect the Turkish commuter, freight and high-speed rail network to the European system.

Moreover, the joint venture will be responsible for the maintenance of the track and of the fitting-out of this section up to 2017.