Measures taken to protect Istanbul ahead of expected Marmara quake

Measures taken to protect Istanbul ahead of expected Marmara quake

Amid earthquake dangers of serious magnitude alongside the Marmara area’s fault line, the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry is main efforts to guard Istanbul’s very important buildings, together with the Bosporus bridges.

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu shared a complete evacuation technique, prioritizing mitigating the possibilities of casualties and guaranteeing the provision of important assets.

“Our foremost objective will be to swiftly deploy search and rescue teams and medical personnel, both domestically and internationally,” Uraloğlu mentioned, including: “Secondly, our focus will be on facilitating access to water, food and emergency provisions for the affected region. Third, we will relocate individuals in danger to secure zones.”

The minister underscored that this strategy encompasses a coordinated utilization of highway, rail and air networks.

Preemptive measures have already been set in movement to fortify pivotal buildings just like the Bosporus bridges towards potential seismic occasions. “We completed the replacement of all July 15 Martyrs Bridge suspension cables while work continues to upgrade earthquake wedges and expansion joints on the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge,” Uraloğlu elaborated.

The plan extends to reinforcing roadways all through Istanbul, he added.

The resilience of key installations, together with Istanbul Airport, the Eurasia Tunnel and the Marmaray railway, has been assessed to fulfill seismic necessities, affirming their readiness within the face of earthquakes, Uraloğlu affirmed.

Highlighting the strategic significance of main roadways, Uraloğlu maintained: “The D-100 highway connecting Istanbul to the July 15 Bridge, TEM highway and the Northern Marmara highway, constituting the city’s arterial lifelines, have been engineered to be earthquake-resistant.”

In an growth of the evacuation plan, the Osmangazi Bridge has been integrated due to its strong earthquake preparedness,” he emphasised.

Addressing considerations about preparedness for the anticipated tremors, Uraloğlu asserted: “We are fully equipped in terms of major thoroughfares within our ministry’s purview, excluding inner city areas.”

The minister additionally detailed plans for using each Sabiha Gökçen and Atatürk Airports. “Sabiha Gökçen’s new runway is nearing completion, accompanied by a new terminal. Moreover, Atatürk Airport boasts a sturdy runway capable of managing substantial air traffic, ensuring its utilization.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change is within the strategy of devising a complete four-phase plan as a part of the intention to enact a particular earthquake regulation, Özhaseki mentioned earlier in August.

The query of the earthquake in Istanbul is topping the nation’s agenda following the large quakes in Türkiye’s southeast that killed over 50,000 and left lots of of hundreds of buildings destroyed.

The metropolis, which final suffered heavy injury from earthquakes in 1999, is on edge in mild of the repeated warnings by specialists concerning the anticipated “big one,” an earthquake with a magnitude of seven.0 or larger.

Pointing out that there’s ongoing city transformation work, the minister informed journalists that the transformation mission at present continues in 188 areas in all 39 districts of town.

“At the moment, the renovation works of around 165,000 residences are underway,” he added.

“In the second stage, we determined the reserve housing areas. In these areas, we can build new, solid, reliable houses for up to 350,000. I think that we will take the second step of earthquake preparation by moving the most risky structures to new locations,” he mentioned.

“Third, we have another campaign that was announced before the election, and that is the ‘Half of Us’ campaign,” Özhaseki said, referring to the marketing campaign via which the state assists residents in demolishing and rebuilding their buildings by masking half of the associated fee.

Özhaeski famous that over 1 million functions had been registered as far as a part of the mission, together with impartial housing entities and customary functions. He mentioned that the variety of buildings with 100% agreements stands at 14,000, which equals 71,000 separate items.

“In the fourth stage, we are considering enacting a special law for Istanbul. We want to take the measures to eliminate whatever obstacles we have encountered in the urban transformation work in Istanbul, which has been going on for 11 years, and enact the law,” he underlined.

Türkiye is among the many world’s most seismically energetic nations. It is located on a number of energetic fault strains, and dozens of minor earthquakes and aftershocks happen day by day. On common, the nation struggles with these pure disasters as soon as in a decade.

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