It examines the concept of constructing a giant tower in Japan that wouldn't be a just a building, but a public city in the sky. At the end it talks about what a fire in the building would be like and how the fire department would handle it.
This episode explores the current New York City subway and the plans for renovation. Also the World Trade Center Station post 9/11 and its hasty repair.
The concept of building a tunnel across the Atlantic Ocean is talked about. It talks about the problems involved, and how it might someday be possible. At the end it examines the concept of a submarine hitting the tunnel, and how hopefully this wouldn't ruin it.
This episode features Shimizu's Pyramid City, which would include dozens of 100-story skyscrapers with more than a million workers as part of a giant pyramid on the sea to provide more living space in Japan. Concepts such as construction robots, electricity issues, and building materials are examined. The pyramid could withstand a tidal wave, and perhaps protect the city as well.
A tunnel over 35 miles long is to be dug under the Swiss Alps to redirect Europe's traffic. This $7 billion project will take 6 years to complete with man and machine fighting the mountains 24/7.
Hong Kong has outgrown its small airport and quickly needed a new one in order to maintain its high traffic flow. The only place to put this new world class airport... 16 miles out in the ocean. This would require 22 miles of new super highway. It was predicted to take decades, but engineers were only given 7 years to build it.
Dutch engineers must overcome rising waters in the North Sea to protect their land.
Boston's new transport system, which features a multi-lane underground highway and the world's widest cable-stayed bridge
A documentary looking at plans to update the Panama Canal. This magnificent waterway cuts through 50 miles of tropical jungle, allowing ships to travel easily from the Atlantic to the Pacific. However, time has passed this engineering marvel by - many modern supercargo ships are three times the size the canal can safely accommodate, so plans are in motion to widen the structure. The project faces all manner of environmental challenges, as well as leaving the canal closed to…
The Turning Torso is the world's largest residential structure, rising 190 meters above Malmö, Sweden.
Venice floodgates Fact file When built: Started 2003, completion due 2010 Height: 30m Weight: 300 tons each Timescale: Seven years Construction material: Steel Number of barriers: 79 Capacity: Stop tides of up to 2m In 1900, St. Mark's Square in Venice flooded about 10 times a year. Now water covers it 100 times a year. Global warming is causing sea levels around the world to rise and environmental experts believe Venice may well go the same way as Atlantis. In September 2003, work began to prevent the city’s 45km of canals from cannibalising its ancient architecture. Phase one saw dredging machines begin to remove 3.8 million cubic metres of clay from the lagoon bed at the mouth of its three inlets. This is being replaced with 9m tons of rock and concrete to provide a sturdy foundation to fix the 79 steel floodgates. Each is bigger than a football field and weighs over 300 tons. When not in use, the gates will lie flat against the lagoon floor. At the threat of a high tide, hydraulic valves can be opened at the flick of a switch allowing the gates to pivot into position. At a cost of $3 billion, the project isn’t exactly cheap. But then, it’s less than the estimated losses during Venice’s worst ever flood in 1966.
Covers the docking of a container ship at Long Beach (California) and the operation of the water front docks, where several thousand containers need to be unloaded and loaded in 48 hours. Also covered is the building of the Adrian Maersk, the world's largest container ship. While the scale of these gigantic ships has to be seen to be believed, the construction must be precise to millimeters.
Imagine driving across a bridge near the North Pole, or going from New York to London in just an hour through a tunnel under the Atlantic Ocean. These are just some of the awe-inspiring projects of today's builders and engineers. Jaw-dropping computer animation illustrates the largest, most outrageous projects ever conceived. As students learn about stretching the boundaries of modern engineering, they also gain understanding of the technological design process and come to understand how physics and chemistry are utilized to solve modern human engineering challenges.
Fifty years after the idea of harnessing the frightening force of Iceland’s glacial rivers was first conceived, the vision is about to be realised. Around 200 miles northeast of the capital, Reykjavik, engineers are hard at work drilling 72km of tunnels deep in the mountains. Three full-face boring machines (TBMs), have been specially shipped from the US to this remote site, 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle. In fact, one has just completed work on a new subway route in New York. Manufactured by American tool company, Robbins, the TBMs each measure 7m in diameter and weigh over 80 tons. Digging an average of 25m a day, each TBM needs 3 megawatts of power to drive it. Other sections of the tunnels will have to be excavated by explosives and power tools. The tunnel’s purpose is to guide water to the valley floor from reservoirs that are also currently under construction. The cascading water will drive six turbines, each with a rated output of 115 megawatts. With a total capacity of 690 megawatts, it will be the biggest hydropower plant in Europe. The project completion is scheduled for 2009.
Engineers redesign oil platforms to withstand the harsh weather conditions in the Gulf of Mexico.
Connecting the bustling port city of Charleston and Mount Pleasant in South Carolina, the Cooper River Bridge will be the longest cable-stay bridge in America. Spanning 490 metres across a busy shipping lane, the bridge has to be built of sturdy stuff. But the biggest threat to its survival is nature. Not only is the structure standing on one of the most seismic spots on the East Coast, it also faces the frequent threat of 300kmph hurricanes. The engineers faced a very tall order – especially with a relatively low budget of $531million. The mainline structure will accommodate eight 4m-wide lanes of traffic, separated by a central barrier. The road deck itself is suspended 54m above sea level by 128 individual cables, strung in parallel from the diamond-shaped support towers. Cable-stayed bridges consist of one or more pillars located in the middle of the span, with cables supporting the roadbed. In this case, each cable is capable of holding 500 tons. To protect the cables from changing weather conditions and moisture they’re enclosed in high-density polymer pipes. Rock barrier islands have been built up around the support towers to prevent ships from careering into the bridge. Plastic hinge zones are being built into towers to allow flexibility during an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. In addition, a damping system has been developed to ensure the structure can withstand hurricane-force wind. The Cooper River Bridge is designed to remain in operation for the next 100 years.
This episode examines the quest to build the world's highest bridge as part of a major highway connecting Paris with Italy and Spain.
In northern Minnesota, the operators of the world's largest open-pit iron mine commission the construction of a $10 million custom-built super-shovel in the hopes of making excavation more efficient.
Europe's first liquefied natural gas plant sits on a floating platform. The platform was transported by ship from southern Spain to the coast of Norway.
The dam, which is the largest ongoing construction project in Latin America, is designed to rise 186 meters above the Rio Grande de Santiago river in Mexico. Upon completion, it will provide for two percent of the entire country's electricity needs.
Engineers are building the Ngong Ping 360, the world's longest detachable cable car system, on Hong Kong's mountainous Lantau Island, spanning the South China Sea.
The 40-year-old Woodrow Wilson Bridge is being replaced by a new span crossing the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia, just south of Washington, D.C.
The Gotthard Base Tunnel underneath the Swiss Alps will be the world's longest rail tunnel upon completion in 2015.
How do you make your mall stand out? By building one of the world's largest indoor ski resorts--in the deserts of Dubai! Ski Dubai features snow-making machines and slopes ranging in difficulty from easy to "black diamond."
The series takes a look at the construction of the new stadium for the NFL's Arizona Cardinals. The state-of-the-art structure is scheduled to be completed in August 2006. It will feature North America's first slide-out tray field, a "pie-slice" construction method and a unique steel-ribbon outer shell.
A 3-mile toll road is built on a 20-foot-high storm drain in Kuala Lumpur.
The series looks at the construction of the supercarrier USS George H.W. Bush.
One of the world's largest construction projects is located on a remote island off the eastern coast of Russia where the Russians are spending billions of dollars to construct the Sakhalin oil and gas complex. The city-sized operation will draw fossil fuels from an inhospitable location in the Pacific Ocean. The hope is that the complex will provide a boost to the area's economy.
This episode takes a look at the emergency repairs implemented in order to help the city of New Orleans recover from the disastrous flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina in late August 2005. Katrina was one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history and New Orleans bore the brunt of its fierce attack.
The 700-ft.-high Torre del Espacio (Space Tower) will be the tallest skyscraper in Spain upon completion. In this episode, the cameras film the week-long struggle to repair one level of the building.
The South Ferry Terminal subway station is the first new subway station in New York City since the early 1900s.
The Hoover Dam Bypass Project aims to remove traffic congestion along U.S. Highway 93 at the Colorado River crossing. A new arch bridge will span the river near Hoover Dam.
The original 1962 TWA Terminal (Terminal 5) at New York's JFK International Airport is remodeled for JetBlue Airlines. The 26 gates of the new low-profile structure will be able to handle 20 million passengers a year.
Suspended above one of the world's busiest waterways, the Stonecutters Bridge in Hong Kong will set a new record for the longest cable-stayed span, over a kilometer in length.
The California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, has won acclaim for an environmentally friendly design that features the use of recycled and renewable materials. Construction began in September 2005.
The Hallandsas Ridge Tunnel Project, the world's most complicated tunneling project, is designed to remove a major bottleneck on the Gothenburg (Göteborg)-Malmo West Coast Line in Sweden. The project began in 1992 but stopped in 1997 because of technical difficulties. Construction resumed in 2004. The project is scheduled for completion in 2012.
Danny Forster heads to Anniston Army Depot to re-assemble an Abrams tank. He also helps build components of this fighting machine and tests it on the firing range.
MS Independence of the Seas
Construction of hotel casino The Palazzo in Las Vegas
Building a Trump's Tower in Chicago
Rebuilding and practice test of an offshore racing boat
City of Culture of Galicia
Building the new Cowboys Stadium
The CityCenter development in Las Vegas aspires to change the desert vacationland into a continental metropolis
Building the Stonecutters Bridge.
The LPD17 is a new class of warship.
New $5.25 billion expansion projects.
Construction of the Limon Dam and one of the deepest tunnels ever attempted.
Al Raha Beach Development in Abu Dhabi
Transition from the Space Shuttle program to the Constellation program.
Singapore's Skypark will hang 650 feet in the air on top of 3 skyscrapers.
Rio de Janeiro has frequent widespread blackouts. So Brazil is building one of the largest hydroelectric projects in the world, consisting of two hydroelectric dam's (Anta and Simplício).
The world's tallest twisting structure, Kuwait's Al Hamra Tower, is looked at.
In an attempt to save the city from another disaster, New Orleans is building the world's strongest hurricane protection system, including the largest storm surge barrier ever built and radical hurricane resistant homes.
Travel to the deepest place on Earth, Johannesburg, South Africa's Mponeng Gold Mine.
Overhauling the San Francisco Bay Bridge is the biggest construction projects in the US.
Melbourne, Australia is building one of the most innovative stadiums ever built. With its unprecedented geodesic roof and advanced cladding, it will be the ultimate fan experience, and an icon for a city known as the sporting capital of the world.
The Swiss government is spending 18 billion dollars to create the Gotthard Base Tunnel - the longest tunnel in the world, getting people and goods through the Alps up to 3 times faster and ultimately changing European transit forever.
Abu Dhabi's $15 billion Central Market will be a new cultural hub for an emerging world destination, complete with offices, parks, luxurious shops, and hotels - and all centered around the world's tallest residential tower, over 1250 feet high.
Danny Forster goes behind the scenes at the Port of Rotterdam, where crews are in the middle of the largest Earth-moving project in history - all to triple the port's capacity, and help it serve the biggest ships on the planet.
Danny takes us to New York City, where the largest public works project in the country is happening: a $15 billion expansion of the NYC transit system. He heads 150 feet underground to find out what can be done without shutting down the city above.
The London Aquatics Centre will host 44 swimming & diving events during the 2012 Olympics and live on as a new addition to the London landscape. Danny Forster goes with crews as they construct one of the most advanced swimming facilities ever built.
The $2 billion Mumbai Airport Expansion project is one of India's most ambitious undertakings ever. If they succeed, it could completely change the way airports are designed.
