pavement stories

I have a crazy project on mind. Instead of using sun we will use the street lights to illuminate our world. Yeap this is a crazy idea, I came with it just a minute ago by myself. Our globe needs such crazy projects, just like the one the Prime Minister of Turkey announced today:

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will build a canal from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea, turning the city of Istanbul into “two peninsulas and an island” and diverting shipping traffic from the Bosporus. The “Istanbul Canal,” which will be up to 50 kilometers (30 miles) long, 150 meters wide and 25 meters deep, will carry as many as 160 ships per day including the largest oil tankers, Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul today. Planning will take two years, he said. Erdogan declined to give a cost estimate or exact location for the canal, saying they would be kept secret to “avoid any kind of negativity or injustice” before the project begins. In response to a reporter’s question, Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas said the project would cost more than $10 billion and take eight years to build.

Source: Bloomberg

As a transport economist with my humble experience in transport infrastructure project evaluations I do not know if I can be suitable for giving guidance to Mr. Erdogan but I would already like to suggest him to develop a second phase of this crazy project. Why not go for horizontal canal just like the Grand Korean Waterway, that can cross Turkey from the center of Anatolia. Project can start from the port of Izmir and make its way all the way to the East and finish in the Armenian border. Along the inland waterway canal we can ask Mehmet Aksoy to establish a variety of statues so that one day Mr. Erdogan can enjoy his boat (gemicik) rides with his son.

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