Skip to main content

Evonik’s Degaroute paves the way at Istanbul Technical University

Ari Gate and the entrance to Ayazağa Campus are now pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly as part of Istanbul Technical University’s ongoing Green Campus project. The university is more than 250 years old and has five campuses spread throughout the centre of historic Istanbul, Turkeys former capital and now a financial and transport hub. The network of campuses and myriad buildings make it extremely difficult for staff and students to get around quickly and efficiently so they must resort to a vehicle, either ca
July 21, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Degaroute days: Ayazağa Campus Gate at Istanbul Technical University
Ari Gate and the entrance to Ayazağa Campus are now pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly as part of Istanbul Technical University’s ongoing Green Campus project.

The university is more than 250 years old and has five campuses spread throughout the centre of historic Istanbul, Turkeys former capital and now a financial and transport hub. The network of campuses and myriad buildings make it extremely difficult for staff and students to get around quickly and efficiently so they must resort to a vehicle, either car of public transport.

“And that’s not the only reason why creating a bike lane was a major challenge for the university,” said Sis Alkan, head of building and technology at İTÜ. The institution is state-run so it has a limited budget which forced the planners in this case to consider new ideas. “During the course of our research, we came across 4009 Evonik and its 1659 Degaroute product.”

The core of the Green Campus project is a 6km bike lane of which Evonik has sponsored 1km. Evonik, a German specialty chemicals company, supplied a durable methyl methacrylate (MMA) cold spray to put down all markings and symbols and the bike lane was open after three days of work.
E|vonik used the rapidly processed two-component system based on Degaroute reactive resins and which can be used for a variety of applications including flat line, structured and profile markings. The product %$Image: ext-gen1280 2 0 /EasySiteWeb/EasySite/SupportFiles/ExtJS/4/resources/themes/images/default/s.gif 0 0 0 false false false false%>hardens within 20 minutes.


To make the bike lane as safe as possible, a base layer with anti-skid aggregate was applied followed by a top coat. “This created a anti-skid surface,” says Melih Durmuş from the Altekma Group, the local company that completed the work. In all, 4tonnes of materials were used to treat the around 2,600m² of bike lane.

In addition to the new bike lanes, the university is now planning to open a bike store on the campus.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Act FAST when it comes to bridge maintenance, argues Cliff Weston
    February 27, 2017
    Deck waterproofing remains critical to a bridge’s structural integrity for its design life, explains Cliff Weston, director of Stirling Lloyd To properly maintain deck waterproofing there must be a willingness to look at solutions based on whole-life costing rather than just short-term initial costs. There are lessons to be learned from examples of prematurely failed infrastructure due to a focus on initial short-term costs.
  • Be it Highways or Skyscrapers, Self-Healing Concrete Market Strengthens Infrastructural Bonds at a Global Scale - Moiz Adenwala
    July 8, 2019
    A key question has always existed in the infrastructural sector; which material to use in order to reduce the time and efforts spend for maintenance required for construction of a particular structure? Fortunately, a material already exists to provide the necessary results. No surprises here – it’s not a special compound, rather it’s a variation of the most common building material ever used, viz. self-healing concrete. This compound has been embraced on a fairly large scale now, thereby giving rise to a di
  • Iterchimica’s Gipave used in major UK road trial
    October 3, 2024
    This is the first time graphene-enhanced Gipave has been applied on the UK’s strategic road network - major highways and motorways - and follows ongoing trials on local roads.
  • Innovative additive for use in recycled asphalt applications
    August 13, 2014
    Biorefiner Arizona Chemical has spent three years developing a new asphalt additive which it says will revolutionise the use of RAP in road pavements. Sylvaroad RP1000 will allow much higher proportions of RAP to be used and produce a better-performing pavement, according to the manufacturer. “What it essentially does is mobilise the chemical matrix of these aged binders,”