UYGAR Continues Its Work with Bodrum and the 5th Asphalt Symposium!

UYGAR Is Reorganizing Bodrum's Traffic

On Tuesday, 1 December, an information meeting was held in the Bodrum Municipality Council Hall on the "Traffic Rehabilitation" work to be carried out against the traffic problem in central Bodrum, which is growing day by day and is a major problem for both Bodrum residents and tourists, especially during the summer season.

The project information meeting was attended by Bodrum Mayor Mehmet Kocadon, Chair of Bahçeşehir University Transportation Application and Research Center Prof. Dr. Mustafa Ilıcalı, municipal council members, members of the press and other stakeholders.

Speaking at the presentation titled "Bodrum Traffic Circulation and Geometric Design Projects", to be carried out with the consultancy of Bahçeşehir University Transportation Application and Research Center Chair Prof. Dr. Mustafa Ilıcalı and the center's board members, Bodrum Mayor Mehmet Kocadon said: "As Bodrum Municipality, we have carried out preliminary work on the traffic problems that exist in Bodrum and increase day by day. Now it is time to detail these projects, and for this we are getting support from professional teams. The reason we are getting support is that Bodrum is our second gateway to the world after Istanbul. But behind this gateway to the world, traffic is our main problem, and it becomes intractable especially in the summer months. We asked Prof. Dr. Mustafa Ilıcalı, one of Bahçeşehir University's distinguished professors, to support us in this matter. Out of his love for Bodrum, Mr. Mustafa did not turn us down, and his team came to Bodrum and carried out preliminary work. Following this work, today they will present to you, the valued people of Bodrum, and to our friends from the press, the presentation they have prepared on the traffic solutions they will implement in Bodrum. I thank them again and wish the project success for Bodrum."

In his opening speech, Bahçeşehir University Transportation Application and Research Center Chair Prof. Dr. Mustafa Ilıcalı said: "Before starting the presentation, I would like to thank our Bodrum Mayor Mr. Mehmet Kocadon and his team very much for contacting us to realize this project, which is of vital importance for Bodrum. With our 30 years of experience, we will help the mayor so loved by the people of Bodrum as much as we can. As Chair of Bahçeşehir University Transportation Application and Research Center, my team and I will work to reduce the traffic problem with our short-term solution proposals."

Prof. Dr. Mustafa Ilıcalı informed participants about the projects, stating that Bahçeşehir University Transportation Application and Research Center was founded with various aims, such as conducting scientific research on transportation planning and infrastructure, carrying out education and research to improve traffic order and safety, and contributing to practical applications.

Saying "We need to carry out applicable scientific studies" to solve the traffic problem, Prof. Dr. Ilıcalı said: "In Bodrum there is a big difference between the summer and winter populations. Accordingly, we will develop applicable projects taking into account traffic flow in the summer months as well. Both residents and tourists coming to Bodrum need to be comfortable in traffic.

Parking is one of the most important problems in traffic flow. There are some problems at intersections, signalization and pedestrian crossings. In some places, pedestrian traffic and vehicle traffic are intertwined."

Stating that they aim to start the coming summer season with some changes implemented, Prof. Dr. Ilıcalı added that Bodrum's town municipalities have connecting roads and that the town municipalities will therefore be consulted and cooperated with.

With slide presentations on transportation and traffic engineering, electronics engineering, and information processing and automation engineering within short-, medium- and long-term solution proposals, Prof. Dr. Mustafa Ilıcalı informed participants on the following topics:

• First, a detailed assessment of the current situation and its evaluation in terms of traffic engineering;
• Arrangements in terms of signalization and central control, and the creation of pedestrian safety areas and organized parking;
• Geometric arrangements, road entrances and the renewal of one-way systems;
• Arrangements regarding public transportation and Smart Card applications;
• Improving safety by reorganizing existing non-standard intersections.

5th Asphalt Symposium

The 5th Asphalt Symposium was held on 18-19 November 2009 in cooperation with the General Directorate of Highways (KGM), the Turkish National Committee on Roads (YTMK) and the Turkish Asphalt Contractors Association (ASMÜD). The Symposium aimed to bring together road authorities, academics, producers and practitioners working on road pavements to contribute to science and practice at national and international levels.

Our university's Transportation Application and Research Center also contributed to the symposium through Prof. Dr. Mustafa ILICALI. Prof. Dr. Mustafa ILICALI chaired Session IV of the 5th Asphalt Symposium, which was attended by experts from Türkiye and abroad on "Surface Treatments and the Performance of Asphalt Mixtures". The papers presented covered notable General Directorate of Highways and TÜBİTAK projects as well as new studies conducted in the USA. In Session IV, papers were also presented by invited speakers Prof. Dr. Erol TUTUMLUER (University of Illinois, USA), A. Gürkan GÜNGÖR (KGM), Fatma ORHAN (KGM), Serdar KAŞAK (KGM), Ahmet SAĞLIK (KGM), Prof. Dr. Mustafa KARAŞAHİN (SDÜ), Mehmet ÖGET (Nurol A.Ş.), Abidin AKBULUT (Nurol A.Ş.) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Murat GÜLER (METU).

In addition, at the end of the symposium, Prof. Dr. Mustafa ILICALI took part in the panel on "Asphalt Pavements Today and Tomorrow" moderated by Prof. Dr. Mustafa KARAŞAHİN, and after summarizing the current state of asphalt, listed the developments expected in the future.

· The use of odor-reducing additives that change the unpleasant smell of asphalt will become more widespread.

· Systems that automatically check bitumen content and deliver fast results will come into use.

· Likewise, systems that measure moisture in aggregate and adjust aggregate drying intensity according to this moisture level will come into frequent use.

· Devices that automatically control gradation and instantly detect unsuitable gradation will be used.

· Systems that control bitumen fumes, known to be harmful to health, and extract them by vacuum to points farther from workers will be used both in plants and in paving machines.

· The use of pavers performing compact asphalt paving, that is, laying two layers at the same time, will gradually become widespread.

· "Continuous paving equipment" will be used frequently to ensure continuous paving and eliminate the concept of joints in asphalt.

· The use of milling machines with dust extraction systems for asphalt milling will become widespread.

· Chip spreading applied on compacted asphalt will be widely used in the coming years.

· The application of porous asphalt, which eliminates the negative effect of water in rainy weather, will become more frequent.

· The use of computerized equipment in paving and compaction machines will increase rapidly.

· Rolled asphalt, which is still in the trial stage, will move beyond trials and come into use.

· Mastic asphalt will be used not only on steel bridges but also in various other areas of application.

· Reclaim applications, used on low-traffic roads such as village roads and also to improve the subgrade, will become even more widespread.

· The construction of very thin "ultra thin" asphalt layers will increase rapidly.

The panel also featured U. Kenan ADİLOĞLU (KGM), Prof. Dr. Erol TUTUMLUER (University of Illinois), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yetkin YILDIRIM (University of Texas), İbrahim YAYKIRAN (ASMUD) and A. Gürkan GÜNGÖR (KGM) as speakers. At the end of the panel, General Director of Highways Cahit TURAN presented plaques of appreciation to the participants.