Turkish construction and contracting industry

The Turkish construction and contracting industry is a big part of the economy: but it has been accused of poor quality due to corruption, causing many deaths in earthquakes.[1]

Skyline of Business district of Istanbul.

To improve energy efficiency of buildings it has been suggested that green buildings should be defined.[2]

Turkish contracting in the international market

During the periods in which investments slowed down in the public and private sectors, foreign contracting services gained importance. The shrinking of the economy in Turkey and the bottleneck in the construction sector resulting from it, has forced construction companies to concentrate more on business abroad.

The opening of the Turkish contractors to foreign markets started at the beginning of the 1970s. The first country to which Turkish contractors exported their services was Libya, where they started their projects by importing the necessary technology from European countries.[3]

Later on, the growing Turkish contracting services expanded to other foreign markets such as Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Iran. Particularly during the 1970s, 90% of the expatriate works undertaken were realized in Arab countries. Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Turkish Contractors have oriented themselves more towards the former Soviet Union countries. In the 1990s, due to the economic depression and the political uncertainties in the Middle Eastern and North African countries, the Turkish Contractors have focused predominantly on the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eastern Europe and Asian countries. In this framework, they have undertaken important projects in the Russian Federation, Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Central Asian Republics, Germany, Pakistan and the Far East.[3]

The total volume of work undertaken by Turkish Contractors has reached 110 billion US Dollars. The Turkish Contractors Association (TCA) currently has 139 members from Turkeys main contracting companies.[3] 90% of the members of TCA is composed of engineers and architects. These are responsible for the realisation of 70% of domestic construction works and 80% of over 4,200 projects undertaken in 69 countries.[3]

High rises can be seen in the skyline of Istanbul, the most populated city in Turkey and Europe

Timeline
The Çanakkale 1915 Bridge on the Dardanelles strait, connecting Europe and Asia, is the longest suspension bridge in the world.[4]

The works of Turkish contractors can be evaluated over three decades plus the period during 2000–2005.[3]

1972–1979

Most of the works undertaken during this period were in North Africa and especially in Libya (72.54%) and later on, in Saudi Arabia (15.44%), Iraq (7.25%), Kuwait (4.71%), Greece (0.06%) and Iran (0.01%).

The most important field of activity in this period was housing (32.14%), followed by harbours (18.11%), road/ bridge/ tunnel works (11.67%) and urban infrastructure projects (8.19%).

1980–1989

Most of the works undertaken during the second decade were realized in Libya again, despite a relative decrease in proportion (55.05%). Saudi Arabia (24.38%) and Iraq (11.16%) were ranked respectively second and third thus maintaining the position they had occupied during the first decade. The emergence of the former Soviet Union was a new development that occurred during this period (3.50%). Other countries in which Turkish contractors started working were Jordan, Yemen, Iran, the USA, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

During this period, housing activities (38.90%) and urban infrastructure projects (17.52%) increased and were followed by road/ bridge/ tunnel (6.69%) and agricultural projects (6.33%).

1990–1999

In the third decade, the trend changed completely. While the share of the Russian Federation increased to (36.19%), Libya's share decreased drastically to (11.19%). Libya was followed by Pakistan (6.92%) and Turkmenistan (6.67%). Together, the works undertaken in the former Soviet Union countries amounted to 61%. The differentiation of the countries in which new projects were undertaken was a novel development characteristic of this decade. Pakistan (6.92%), Turkmenistan (6.67%), Kazakhstan (6.55%), Uzbekistan (4.29%), Bulgaria (2.79%), the USA (2.69%), Azerbaijan (2.30%) and Croatia (1.86%) emerged as new markets. Other important developments were the considerable decrease in the proportion of works in Saudi Arabia (3.44%) and the disappearance of Iraq from the scene. The "other" category comprised 33 countries with a proportion of 8%.

Despite a decrease in the proportion of housing works (23.89%), it remained the first ranking activity. However, this did not mean a decrease in housing works in terms of value. The value of the housing projects undertaken during this period was also high. Housing was followed by road/ bridge/ tunnel works (12.84%), industrial facilities (9.65%) and commercial centers (8.13%).

The highest proportion of the projects undertaken during this period was in the Russian Federation and the other former Soviet Union countries.

2000–2007
Küçük Çamlıca TV Radio Tower in Istanbul

The period after the year 2000 is a period where markets showed even more differentiation and where there was specialization in certain types of projects. The number of countries, in which Turkish contractors worked, increased considerably and that caused the percentage of work in each country to decrease relatively. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation maintained the first rank (14.66%) and was followed by Romania (11.46%) and Kazakhstan (9.55%). The interesting developments in this period are, apart from Romania, the emergence of the United Arab Emirates (7.75%), Afghanistan (5.34%), Ireland (4.66%), Qatar (3.33%), Algeria and Morocco as new markets. After the interventions that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq, the rebuilding activities in these countries were closely followed by TCA member companies, just as it was in the rest of the world.

When the types of work undertaken during this period are considered, road/bridge/tunnel works occupy the first rank (24.47%), followed by industrial facilities (14.52%), airports (8.33%), social and cultural facilities (6.54%) and housing (6.08%).

The total value of work undertaken amounted to 5.4 billion US Dollars in 2004,9.3 billion US Dollars in 2005, 15.9 billion US Dollars in 2006 and 19.5 billion US Dollars in 2007.

Earthquakes
This section is an excerpt from Architecture of Turkey § Earthquakes.[edit]

In earthquake-prone areas, all buildings built to 20th century standards may be dangerous,[5] but shortly after the 1999 İzmit earthquake, which killed over 17 thousand people, a new seismic code was brought into force to protect against earthquakes in Turkey.[6][7] Also following that earthquake a so-called earthquake tax was raised during the government of Bülent Ecevit.[8] Initially thought as a temporary tax, it became permanent.[6] The aim of the tax is to prepare for earthquake related damage.[8][9] In 2007 the seismic code was strengthened.[10][11] However, it is alleged that builders often ignored the rules due to corruption.[12] After the 2011 Van earthquakes Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: "Municipalities, constructors and supervisors should now see that their negligence amounts to murder."[13] In 2018, a zoning law gave amnesties to some unlicensed buildings and some with unlicensed floors.[13]

Further resilience over the 2007 code was mandated in the 2018 Turkish Seismic Code, which took effect on 1 January 2019.[10][14] Improvements included design supervision and site specific hazard definitions,[15] and for new buildings in vulnerable regions required rebar in high quality concrete.[16] Beams and columns in those buildings must be in the right place to properly absorb shaking.[16] The code is said by foreign experts to be very modern and similar to US codes.[17] However, these 21st century building codes were not very well enforced.[5]

In a bid to shore up support going into the 2018 Turkish presidential election, the government offered amnesties for violations of the building code, allowing non-compliance to continue with the payment of a fee.[18] This poor enforcement of seismic codes was a contributing factor to the devastation of the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes in which over 42,000 people died in Turkey.[7] There were high incidences of support column failure leading to pancake collapses, which complicated rescue efforts. Experts lamented the practice would turn cities into graveyards.[19] The 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake collapsed many older buildings and some recent ones:[20] the Environment and Urbanization Ministry is assessing the damage.[21]

Unreinforced masonry buildings are vulnerable.[22] Many older buildings in Istanbul are vulnerable to pancake collapses.[23] Retrofitting old buildings is possible but expensive.[23] Although over 3 million housing units nationwide were strengthened in the 2 decades before 2023, as of that year many apartment blocks do not meet 21st century standards.[20] Building with wood has been suggested.[24]

See also

References
  1. "Turkey's earthquakes show the deadly extent of construction scams". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  2. "Enhancing Turkey's policy framework for energy efficiency of buildings, and recommendations for the way forward based on international experiences" (PDF). Buildings Performance Institute Europe and SHURA Energy Transition Center. June 2019.
  3. The Turkish Contractors Association Archived December 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Groundbreaking ceremony for bridge over Dardanelles to take place on March 18". Hürriyet Daily News. 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
  5. "In Turkey and Syria, outdated building methods all but assured disaster from a quake". NPR.
  6. Baysan, Lauren Said-Moorhouse,Isil Sariyuce,Zeena Saifi,Reyhan (2023-02-08). "Emotions run high in Turkey amid questions over state response to deadly quake". CNN. Retrieved 2023-02-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. "Turkey's earthquakes show the deadly extent of construction scams". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  8. "Turkey quakes to cost nation $6.2 billion - Minister - Türkiye | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
  9. "Erdogan zwackte Steuergeld ab, statt Häuser gegen Erdbeben zu sichern". Focus. 8 February 2023.
  10. "Turkey: New building code for earthquake resilience". www.preventionweb.net. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  11. "2007 Turkish Earthquake Code" (PDF).
  12. "What made the earthquake in Turkey and Syria so deadly?". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  13. Beaumont, Peter (2023-02-07). "Turkey earthquake death toll prompts questions over building standards". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  14. "International-Workshop-on-Advanced-Materials-and-Innovative-Systems-in-Structural-Engineering-Seismic-Practices-New-Improvements-in-the-2018-Turkish-Seismic-Code".
  15. Sucuoğlu, Haluk. "New Improvements in the 2019 Building Earthquake Code of Turkey".
  16. "Turkey earthquake: Anger at building standards grows". BBC News. 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
  17. Pettersson, Lauren Said-Moorhouse,Christian Edwards,Krystina Shveda,Henrik (2023-02-07). "The earthquake in Turkey is one of the deadliest this century. Here's why". CNN. Retrieved 2023-02-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. "Turkey's lax policing of building codes known before quake". AP NEWS. 2023-02-10. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
  19. "Turkey earthquake failures leave Erdogan looking vulnerable". BBC News. 2023-02-11. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
  20. "The earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have shaken both countries". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  21. "Turkey earthquake: Anger at building standards grows". BBC News. 2023-02-08. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
  22. "Practices of Brick Masonry Construction in Turkey and their Seismic Behaviors during Earthquakes".
  23. "Earthquake in Turkey a warning for Istanbul, which faces much larger death toll if quake strikes".
  24. "Hollanda'ya depreme dayanıklı konut yapmayı öğreten Türkiye neden bu kadar fazla yıkım yaşıyor?". BBC News Türkçe (in Turkish). 2023-02-10. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
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