Fatih Çevik, managing director of Limak Construction, based in Ankara, Turkey, has a long-standing affection for the Çoruh River in the mountainous northeastern region of the country, which he describes as part of the landscape of his youth. He describes being by the river as a child and thinking about how “wild and magnificent” the flowing waters were. Now, as an engineer who oversaw much of the design and construction of the $1.8 billion Yusufeli hydroelectric dam on the same river, he feels a sense of accomplishment. “Now I am very proud to lead the team that built the biggest dam on this river,” says Çevik.
The 275m high dam, which took more than a decade to design and build, is now operating at full capacity, with a generation capacity of 1.89 terawatt-hours per year. He led the herculean effort of managing the early rock composition investigations to managing the excavation as well as project execution.
Çevik worked with South African firm ARQ Consultants to find efficiencies in concrete placement for the dam, including batch plant construction near the structure and the use of a cable system to bring the basic material to the site. Key challenges also involved identifying concrete temperatures and a 40% fly ash composition so that it could be placed quickly without the risk of cracking.
“You tend to think of large-scale construction as being about plant and equipment, but in reality, successful rapid construction is much more about good people,” says Quentin Shaw, specialist consultant at ARQ Consultants and Vice President of International. Large Dam Commission (ICOLD). Shaw worked alongside Çevik for a decade as chief dam designer on the Yusufeli Dam project. “When the best people are involved in a project, everything works well and everything seems simple,” he says. “It was an extremely complex project and Fatih was definitely the key person in making the project look much simpler than it really was.”
Shaw acknowledges that “many of us on the project often voiced our concern about the level of responsibility heaped on Fatih, but he never complained, he never failed, he never failed. He is an exceptional and talented engineer, the likes of which I have rarely seen. in international construction”.
Çevik has spent much of his 24-year career in the industry on engineering projects and dam construction, in previous years working on a different project on the Çoruh River, the Deriner Dam. It was there, living on the site with his wife, that they had their first child, he says.
Çevik is also an expert on concrete dams for ICOLD and has written more than 10 articles on dam engineering. Other major projects include Kuwait International Airport, Artvin Dam, Anatolia Highway Project in Turkey and Moglice Dam in Albania.
With work on the Yusufeli Dam project completed, Çevik is now leading a team on part of the NEOM megaproject in Saudi Arabia as CEO of a Limak joint venture with Saudi firm Al Ayuni. Like the Yusufeli project, the construction of the $500 billion-plus NEOM project is “iconic” in its ambition and scope, says Çevik. He says he is pleased to know that he and his team can put years of accumulated experience and knowledge to use in this new endeavor. “NEOM is not only a unique construction project, but also an adventure that will shape the [Middle East-North Africa] region and the world as well,” he says. “Being part of the NEOM initiative offers the opportunity to be at the heart of innovation, within a global community, and allows us to showcase our advanced knowledge for sustainability and environmental awareness”.
