ÇANAKKALE – Doğan News Agency




A court in the western province of Bursa has granted authority to prosecutors to go after public servants who allowed a road to be built and then rebuilt before simply disregarding the project when part of it collapsed.

The whole process began seven years ago when authorities decided to address the safety risks of a point in the Çanakkale-İzmir highway. The Roads and Traffic Authority decided to use a World Bank loan to build a safer alternative route and tendered it to a construction company for YTL 1 million.

Despite protests from environmentalists about the effects of cutting down more than one hundred trees and warnings by the local chamber of civil engineers authorities decided to go forward with the plan. A year-long delay was caused by the local culture council which denied the construction company a permit because the site contains historical ruins.

Construction finally began in the summer of 2002 and included the filling of a valley with new soil with the road opening to traffic in late 2003.

In 2006 one of the lanes of the three-lane road collapsed because the land-fill under the road began to weaken. In October 2006 a new YTL 1.6 million tender was issued for the mending of the road.

As construction began the traffic was diverted to the old and less safe road. When the contractor removed the land-fill under the new road to check it was found out that a new land-fill could collapse as the old one did. Authorities decided to reinforce the old road and use it until a viaduct was built.

In the final tally over one hundred trees were cut and YTL 2.6 million spent on a road that will never be used.

The local bar association filed a complaint requesting the punishment of the public servant responsible for the waste. The prosecutor agreed but failed to get the governor's permission to go after the public servants.

The prosecutor and the bar association applied to a Bursa court asking it to remove the governor's veto currently preventing the prosecution of those responsible. The court agreed and opened the way for the investigation to go forward.

Çanakkale Bar Association President Tülay Ömercioğlu said state officials had ignored all the warnings made by local NGOs when the project was first discussed. “Our taxes were spent on this road. We are very happy that the court agreed to pursue the case. Those who ignored the warnings will face charges of neglecting their duties while those who knew about the waste will be prosecuted for abuse of power. If these cases end in our favor charges can be filed against these people to recover some of the losses.”