Fatih Çevik: An Appreciation of the Power and Beauty of Water Inspires a Turkish Dam Engineer to Think Big and Take On His Most Ambitious Challenge, with Others to Come
Fatih Çevik, general manager of Limak Construction, based in Ankara, Turkey, has had a longstanding affection for the Çoruh River in the country’s mountainous northeastern region, which he describes as part of the landscape of his youth. He recounts standing by the river’s banks as a child and thinking about how “wild and magnificent” the flowing waters were. Now, as the engineer who oversaw much of the design and construction of the $1.8-billion Yusufeli hydroelectric dam on that same river, he feels a sense of accomplishment. “I am now so proud to be leading the team that built the largest dam on this river,” says Çevik.
The 275-m-high dam, which took more than a decade to engineer and construct, now is running at full capacity, with a generation capacity of 1.89 terawatt hours annually. He spearheaded the herculean effort of managing early investigations of the rock composition to manage the excavation, as well as the project execution.