Istanbul Airport was built in 3 years by private companies, it was opened this year and considered as biggest after the new Chinese airport being built.

It also caused the deaths of 55 workers in the meanwhile, 30 of directly work related accidents and 25 of ‘natural causes’(?)

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/55-workers-died-during-ista...

Not only that, large parts of it remain under construction. I know because I’ve been there two weeks ago. There was raw cement residue sitting uncleared before passport control. The signage is half broken and half incomplete. Instead of signage they have temp workers shouting the names of connecting flights and you have to huddle over to that guy and hope to god he knows what he’s doing.

Oh, and it takes 4+ hours to come to Kadikoy, the centre of the town on the Asian side.

It might be less of a disaster than the Berlin-Brandenburg mentioned here, but only barely so.

I was aware of those issues while I was typing the comment. One of my cousins worked in the construction (as a worker), heard things from him, too.

My point was about private companies building airports. If Turkish government built Istanbul Airport, would there be no deaths ?

Worker rights definitely make difference. But in the context of new Berlin airport, it looks like the problem is more about being able to organize and being able to manage a huge project.

I meant more in the vein of government having a large role in being the referee in these kind of issues. Had Istanbul Airport been built in Germany with the exact same private companies, I suspect it would have far fewer of a death toll, since the German government is much more aggressive in coming after workplace safety violations. So even if private companies are ultimately responsible, the government still does have a large role in keeping everything in check - a role Germany and Turkey failed in different ways.

Sorry to hear about your cousin, though, I hope he managed to get out unscathed.

I wonder if it has something to do with construction company execs having more skin in the game in more authoritarian regimes.

All these things are built by private companies. The funding is the part that comes from government.

And the change orders. Don't forget the change orders.