New equipment on the field to rebuild Turkey

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Special construction equipment is needed to demolish buildings as part of the urban transformation project, says Cüneyt Divriş. Equipment firms have designed nine new models to be used in the project across Turkey.

Turkey’s giant urban transformation project will expand the construction equipment sector by 20 percent, according to the Construction Equipment Distributors and Manufacturers Union (İMDER) chairman Cüneyt Divriş.

Manufacturers of construction equipment and engineers have been asked to design nine different pieces of equipment to be used in the demolition of existing buildings and the lifting of debris in the country’s $400 billion urban transformation project, which will encompass 33 Turkish provinces simultaneously, Divriş said in a written press release.

“The $400 billion urban transformation project will help our sector grow by 20 percent,” he said, adding that 4,000 pieces of construction equipment would be used to demolish 6,500 buildings as part of the project.

Divriş said there were currently 61,000 pieces of construction equipment in Turkey that are under 10-years old, but stressed that this equipment was not specifically designed to be used in the urban transformation project. For this reason, months ago the manufacturers of such equipment gave a mandate to their engineers and Research and Development departments to come up with suitable equipment.

“Nine new pieces of equipment were designed. This equipment is equipped with the necessary apparatuses to be used in demolition and has the ability to reach even the furthest points,” he said. This new equipment costs from anything between $100,000 and $300,000, according to Divriş.

Saves time and costs
“It saves time and leads to a 30 percent reduction in costs. It is also advantageous in terms of recycling, energy consumption and the environment,” he said.

Including the operator, three people will man the equipment and this will translate into a need for 12,000 qualified employees to man the 4,000 machines. The sector currently employs 30,000 people, but even this is not enough for current projects, let alone urban transformation, according to Divriş.