Turkish company completes Danube River crossing in difficult project
Kalyon Construction announced to the public that it has successfully completed the most challenging phase of the Romanian Black Sea Coast - Podișor Natural Gas Pipeline project, which it started construction in June 2023. The longest of the project's 4 river crossings, the 1815-meter Danube River crossing, was completed at a depth of 63 meters and with the construction of 151 12-meter pipes. It was stated that this crossing, which is a milestone in Europe, has achieved many firsts in practice with its diameter, geological complexity and scale of mobilized equipment.
The Black Sea Coast-Podişor Natural Gas Pipeline project, built by Kalyon İnşaat, is on the list of “European Union Common Benefit Projects.” The project, which has a construction cost of 500 million Euros , is important in terms of meeting the increasing gas needs of the European Union and Romania and ensuring energy supply security by transporting the additional gas resources that Romania will extract through the capacity increase it will make in its natural gas reserves in the Black Sea to the connection points in the interior of the country.
The critical importance of the ongoing project has been highlighted once again, as countries such as Slovakia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria have recently experienced problems in energy supply, as a result of the disruption of gas flow to Europe via Ukraine due to the Russia-Ukraine War.
Emphasizing that they have successfully completed the most difficult and important phase of the project, the Danube River crossing, Kalyon Construction Board Chairman Murathan Kalyoncu made a statement on the subject, saying, “In my memories, the Danube River is a symbol of the heroic march we know as the Pleven March. As a local and national company, we have proudly represented our country in the international arena with the projects we have carried out so far, and with this project, we are trying to reveal a heroic story just like the Pleven March. It is a great source of pride for all of us to have successfully completed the Danube River crossing, the most difficult phase of the Black Sea Coast-Podişor Natural Gas Pipeline project, which will play a major role in gas transmission to Europe. The most important geological challenge at this stage was the presence of ground conditions that created a high risk of borehole instability. Additional geotechnical research and engineering improvements were carried out before the implementation for these problems. In the Danube River crossing of this project, which we have carried out in Romania, with which we have strong economic, cultural and human ties; in order to prevent possible underground collapses that may occur on the pipeline route, the pipe route will pass through more stable limestone. “We revised the design studies. We reduced the depth to 62.74 meters. The project’s river crossing is one of the longest HDD (horizontal directional drilling) river crossings in Europe. The successful execution of HDD crossings marks a significant achievement in trenchless technology. The combination of challenging ground conditions, specially designed solutions and large-scale equipment mobilization distinguishes these projects as landmark crossings in Europe.”
Murathan Kalyoncu continued his words as follows: “The Black Sea Coast-Podişor Natural Gas Pipeline project has been of great importance to us since the tender process. We won the tender, which was held in accordance with EU tender laws, by leaving behind the largest companies in Europe and technically receiving full points . Since then, we have been continuing our work meticulously with our professional teams and have completed the final phase of the project.”
With the completion of the Danube River crossing, the final phase of the project has been successfully completed, and after the final connections are made, the Black Sea Coast–Podişor Natural Gas Pipeline is planned to be put into service in a short time.
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