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Environmental problems caused by Istanbul subway excavation and suggestions for remediation

  • Original Article
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Environmental Geology

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 m3. In this study, problems—primarily, the problem with excavation waste (EW)—caused by subway excavation are analyzed and suggestions for remediation are offered.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rail Transport Construction Department, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, IETT General Directorate, Karaköy-Istanbul, Turkey

    Ibrahim Ocak

  2. Mining Engineering Department, Istanbul University, Avcılar-Istanbul, Turkey

    Ibrahim Ocak

Authors
  1. Ibrahim Ocak
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Correspondence to Ibrahim Ocak.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 6

Table 6 Generated EW and its properties
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Appendix 2

See Table 7

Table 7 Generated soft materials and its properties
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Appendix 3

See Fig. 14

Fig. 14
figure 14

Flow chart for EW management

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Ocak, I. Environmental problems caused by Istanbul subway excavation and suggestions for remediation. Environ Geol 58, 1557–1566 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1662-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1662-9

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