The event was attended by a large number of invitees including high-level officers from Provincial and District Municipalities, the Local Authority, the District Office of the General Directorate for Highways, as well as other public institution representatives, academics, and students. The opening speeches of the event were made by Votorantim Board Member Trade Director Çağan Alpas and Sivas Cumhuriyet University Rector Prof. Dr. Alim Yıldız.
In his speech Yıldız underlined that we must act in solidarity and rely on our own national resources in every respect during these times as foreign currency saw a high level of increase and as our country faces terror attacks. To this end, he said that they want to use concrete for the 15 km road planned for the campus of Sivas Cumhuriyet University.
Speaking under the title “Why Concrete Roads?” Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Assistant Secretary General Mustafa Yurt emphasized that the nation wanted two things from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: road and school. He said that the school issue was resolved with the opportunities offered in 1923 whereas the road issue was still not resolved in 2016. Explaining why Samsun Municipality prefers concrete roads; he called attention to the fact that the Law no. 6360 increased the size of their service area from 79,000 ha to 1 million ha and that there were some citizens who asked for roads prior to the elections, however, upon examinations the municipality found out that 4,000 km-road will have to be renewed to meet the request of the citizens. According to Yurt, if that 4,000 km road is built using asphalt then it will require more than 1 meter of digging and the cost will be about 4 quadrillion TL a figure that the municipality is not able to pay. For all these reasons, they prefer concrete roads which are also suitable for consolidated muddy grounds. Yurt also underlined that even one extra metric ton of the standard axle loads considered during the design process of surface dressing and asphalt roads require repair within 2-3 years for the roads planned to be used for 10-15 years, that annually about $1.3 billion is spent for bitumen a material derived from imported petroleum, and that the current deficit is negatively affected as the heating of these mixtures requires also imported products. He further emphasized that, during these times when our president urges citizens to sell foreign exchange to protect the value of Turkish Liras, we should use concrete roads instead of flexible and surface dressings which simply mean foreign exchange to help reduce the current deficit. Yurt also said that Samsun Municipality opted for concrete roads for its 4,000 km-road project due to the fact that concrete roads are home-grown, national, and economic and that they offer technical advantages. He also added that they have built 750 km long concrete roads in Samsun since 2013 and that they will continue their efforts in 2017 as well.
Civil Engineer M.Sc Muhammet Çelik from Trabzon Provincial Disaster and Emergency Directorate also made a speech and compared concrete and asphalt roads. He gave examples from Trabzon village roads and explained that concrete roads can serve for 20 years even under negative workmanship conditions and that concrete roads are ideal for heavy vehicle traffic and harsh climatic and ground conditions. He further stated that concrete roads offer eco-friendly results as they can be produced from recycled goods and reduce the lighting need on village roads. He finally added that the fact that concrete roads can be built without hard shoulders provides a significant advantage in expropriated prices compared to asphalt roads.
TCMA Technical Consultant Prof. Dr. Özgür Yaman, on the other hand, offered information about roller compacted concrete road practices. Underlining that roller compacted concrete roads can be built with the equipment used for building asphalt roads, Yaman said that these roads offer many advantages such as early-opening-to-traffic opportunities and lower first production costs even compared to surface dressings.
Delivering the closing speech at the event was TCMA CEO İsmail Bulut who emphasized that cement will contribute not only to circular economy but also to road safety. Bulut called attention to the fact that one of every five accidents in our country occurs due to vehicles unilaterally going off the road and that concrete barriers can reduce the loss of life and property caused by these kinds of accidents. He also added that it is necessary to make the use of CE safety certified concrete barriers mandatory at central refuges in our country, just like how it is in Britain and Ireland, in order to ensure road safety.
