A SAFE NAVIGATION PROPOSAL FOR KANAL ISTANBUL: INTEGRATED TUG-BARGE SYSTEM

Abstract

"Canal Istanbul", officially announced in 2011; is an alternative waterway project to the Strait of Istanbul, designed to relieve ship traffic. The main intention of relieving the ship traffic is to transfer the tanker traffic, which poses a significant risk to the Istanbul metropolis, to Canal Istanbul. On the basis of the criticisms made to the project in line with the determined dimensions, another risk factor, the issue of safe navigation opportunities and the economic criterion of the lower tonnage transportation that arises in this sense come to the fore.

In fact, in all artificial canals in the world, before the project is created compared to natural water passages (channels), similar concerns are experienced among the parties of maritime transport and the necessary projection studies are carried out. Likewise, such studies have been carried out for Canal Istanbul and the simulations have been verified in terms of navigation. The main issue that causes concern here is the question of to what extent a ship with the dimensions based on simulations will be commercially and technically effective compared to the existing fleet. However, the optimum usage of such a water passage can be solved by a set of transportation engineering strategies and a system that puts the competitive and environmentalist side of canal use in the foreground.

In this study, the integrated tugboat-barge system (ITBS) is thought to be the most ideal transportation system for Canal Istanbul, whose has not been completed yet. The contribution of the ITBS system, which is widely used in world canal and water transport, to the optimum use of existing waterways and its being environmentally friendly, has been the main motivation for this study. A detailed literature study has been made on the subject, the examples of this form of transportation in the world have been examined and the form usable for Canal Istanbul has been specified. In addition, the criticisms made about Canal Istanbul formed the set of problems in the study, and reasonable solutions were offered to these problems with the usefulness of the proposed transportation system, and the advantages of the system were explained.