Page 8 - World Of Nurol Magazine-27

and present...

The highway in the 1950s

“In retrospect, it seems that
the history of the land journeys,
which fifteenfold fastened in the past
250 years, is at the same time the history of
economic growth, technological improvements
and also the cultural shifts.

However, above all, this may be the history of the roads been constructed, buildings
been erected, railways been spreaded, swamps been drained, dams been barriered
before waters, in sweat and tears despite of the impossible conditions. It is the history of the
contractors, engineers and workers who calculated and builded all of those and the history of the
bureaucracy and politics, finance capital, modernisation. In short it is the history of public works.”

Within this long journey starting from small subconstruction works to being the first five contractors of the world would
not supposed to be that easy. Given that a journey between Istanbul and Ankara lasts 8 hours today, in normal circumstances,
we barely express the duration of the same journey as days or even weeks at the times road constructions had newly begun.

To mention the history of highways briefly;
In the period of Ottoman Empire, although the priority list of the roads and bridges to be constructed was identified
with the Imperial Edict of Gulhane announced in 1839, the construction of the first roads delayed until 1850s.
The roads can be considered as modern firstly constructed by British and French engineers were Bursa-Mudanya
34 km, Bursa-Gemlik 34.5 km, Trabzon-Erzurum 314 km in length. The construction of the first two roads
68.5 km in total was completed in 15, Trabzon-Erzurum road, on the other hand had continued 22 years
and completed as late as 1872.
Since there were no roads appropriate for the motor vehicles even as of 1914 there were only 187
motor vehicles all throughout the Empire territorial.

We understand that the progress Turkish construction sector has covered in years not
only in Turkey but also throughout the world is a result of enormous efforts, huge
experiences and well-deserved successes.