Hi everyone, it’s Katrina!
From tunnels that go under the ocean to skyscrapers that disappear into the sky, here are 8 insane
engineering marvels.
8.
PALM ISLANDS
Dubai is no stranger to engineering accomplishments.
The cosmopolitan city boasts the world’s tallest skyscraper and is also home to the
world’s largest indoor theme park, IMG Worlds of Adventure, in the middle of a desert!!
In addition to these achievements, Dubai has another claim to fame: the world’s largest
man-made archipelago, known as the Palm Islands.
These islands are the brainchild of the current prime minister of the United Arab Emirates
and Emir of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
The project’s purpose is to expand Dubai’s coastline and to attract tourism.
Is it working??
Have you been yet??
Construction on the islands began in 2001 and took just six years to complete.
The islands were made by a process called land reclamation.
Sand was dredged from the floors of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Gulf; then, with the
help of GPS for precision, it was sprayed and vibro-compacted into shape.
Vibro-compaction is the process of vibrating sand with probes and saturating loose sand
with jets of water to increase its density.
But first, an 11-kilometer-long, crescent-shaped breakwater was constructed using millions
of tons of blasted mountain rock for protection against strong currents and seasonal winds
that blow across the Gulf from Iraq.
The breakwater itself was an engineering feat.
Its lowest layer is made of sand covered by an erosion-preventing water-permeable geotextile.
The sand is covered by one-ton rocks, which are capped by large rocks weighing up to six
tons each.
Designers from Nakheel, the project’s development company, believe the breakwater will protect
the Palm Islands from massive storms, typical gulf weather, and even the rising sea levels
caused by climate change.
Let’s hope so, since the islands have become a popular destination for tourists and long-term
residents alike, and is expected to eventually have 120,000 residents and 20,000 daily visitors.
7.
HOOVER DAM
The hoover dam is located on the border between Arizona and Nevada in the USA.
The dam provides flood control, and is a huge supplier of hydroelectric power.
Despite criticism from skeptics, who thought the $49 million project would fail financially
or that the dam simply couldn’t be built, plans moved forward.
By the way, in today’s money, that would be $860 million!
There were various perceived benefits to building the Hoover Dam.
It would protect cities and farms by taming the flood-prone Colorado River, generate cheap
electricity, and provide thousands of desperately-needed jobs during the Great Depression.
First, diversion tunnels were built to redirect the flow of the river away from the construction
site.
Then, millions of tons of rocks were excavated.
To protect themselves from falling rocks, workers dipped their hats in tar, effectively
creating the first hard-hats.
The work was dangerous - 112 people died during the construction of the dam.
Beginning in June 1933, concrete was poured in rectangular pieces, which were cooled with
pipes filled with ice water.
It took nearly two years to pour the 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete.
Finally, in 1935, the dam was finished, and the largest reservoir in the U.S., Lake Mead,
was created.
At its peak, the project employed over 5,000 people.
Have you been to the Hoover Dam?
Let me know in the comments below!!
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6.
LARGE HADRON COLLIDER
The 17-mile-long Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is the world’s most powerful particle
accelerator.
It’s buried 575 feet (175 m) underground, on the border of France and Switzerland and
was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
Over 100 countries and over 10,000 scientists collaborate with this project that cost over
7.5 billion Euros to build.
As its name suggests, the LHC forces particle beams to collide, traveling in opposite directions
at nearly the speed of light and guided by a strong magnetic field maintained by nearly
10,000 superconducting electromagnets.
Devices like the large hadron collider are meant to help scientists understand the origins
of the universe and test theories of particle physics.
It also is an important tool to search for new particles.
The collider is a circular concrete tunnel, which contains parallel beam pipes going in
opposite directions and 4 places where they intersect so the particles can collide.
It’s size alone was a huge engineering challenge, let alone controlling and monitoring the energy
stored in the magnets and beams.
It uses tons and tons of supercool liquid helium to keep everything cool.
While rumors exist that famed physicists Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Stephen Hawking have expressed
concern that the large hadron collider could create a mini black hole that would destroy
the universe, whether they actually made those claims is widely debated.
5.
THE FALKIRK WHEEL
The Falkirk Wheel is the world’s only rotating boat lift, connecting the Forth & Clyde Canal
and the Union Canal in Scotland.
When it opened in 2002, the two canals were connected for the first time since the 1930’s,
when a staircase of eleven locks, which had taken nearly a day to transit, was dismantled.
The construction of the wheel was part of the Millenium Link project, which sought to
reconnect the two canals.
To build the wheel, the parts were constructed and assembled in Derbyshire.
Then, they were disassembled, transported to Falkirk, bolted together, and crane-lifted
into place.
Over 1,000 construction staff were required for the project, and over 1,300 tons of steel
were used to complete the wheel, along with 15,000 hand-tightened bolts.
The 114-foot-tall lift is the equivalent height of eight stacked double-decker buses.
Each of the two gondolas holds enough water to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
They were designed based on Archimedes’ principle that floating objects displace their
own weight in water.
Therefore, the weight of the contents of each gondola are always the same, even if one is
empty and the other contains a boat.
To be safe, the water levels are always monitored by electric sensors to ensure they’re equal.
The wheel is powered by ten hydraulic motors, which transports the boats in each gondola
to their respective canals in just four minutes.
It can rotate both clockwise and counterclockwise, and the operator in the control room is responsible
for rotating the lift in both directions the same amount of times to reduce wear on its
bearings and other moving parts.
During the rotation, the gondolas are kept in the upright position by a simple set of
cogs.
Perhaps the most amazing feature of the Falkirk Wheel is its energy efficiency.
Operating the wheel only requires the same amount of energy as boiling eight electric
kettles, thanks to the principles of balance and equilibrium that its design was based
on.
4.
THE CHANNEL TUNNEL
The Channel Tunnel, or the “Chunnel” for short, is a famous underground passageway
between Britain and France that connects the United Kingdom to the European mainland.
The 31-mile tunnel actually consists of three tunnels, two of which are used for trains,
and one which serves as an emergency exit and as a service tunnel.
It is the longest underwater tunnel in the world.
Prior to the completion of the Chunnel in 1994, people wishing to travel between England
and France had to endure a 90-minute ferry ride, despite the two countries being separated
by only 30 miles of water.
Today, the Chunnel enables upwards of 50,000 daily commuters to traverse the English Channel
in just 35 minutes.
The idea of an underground tunnel connecting England and France was first proposed in 1802
by French mining engineer Albert Mathieu-Favier.
Plans for such a tunnel were discussed several times in following years, and a mile-long
tunnel was drilled in 1880 before the project was once again abandoned.
Finally, in 1988, plans for the Chunnel finally started to come to fruition.
Building the Channel Tunnel presented challenges from every fathomable angle, from securing
funding to acquiring experienced engineers and specialized tunnel boring machines.
Skilled and unskilled workers also had to be hired and housed.
To fund the project, money was borrowed from over 50 large banks.
Construction of the Chunnel was started simultaneously from both England and France, with plans to
meet in the middle.
Tunnel boring machines, or TBM’s, burrowed through a layer of chalk underneath the Channel,
with the debris being hauled behind the machine using conveyor belts.
On the British side, the debris, also known as spoil, was hauled up to the surface using
railroad wagons.
On the French side, the spoil was mixed with water and pumped out through a pipeline.
As progress was made, the tunnel was lined with concrete.
One of the biggest challenges of the project was aligning the tunnels to meet in the middle.
Until it happened, nobody knew for sure if it would work.
The calculations were made using special surveying equipment and lasers, and from thereon out,
everyone hoped for the best.
On December 1, 1990, the two sides of the service tunnel were officially connected.
The cost of the Chunnel totaled around $15 billion, but the project has proven to be
worth its hefty price tag and remains a booming success.
3.
BURJ KHALIFA
When I mentioned earlier that Dubai is home to the world’s biggest skyscraper, I was
referencing the Burj Khalifa, which stands at an astonishing 2,712 feet high - approximately
twice the height of the Empire State Building and three times that of the Eiffel Tower!
What makes the colossal tower even more amazing is the short period of time it took to build.
Construction began in 2004, and just five years later, in 2009, the exterior was completed.
Construction of the Burj Khalifa totaled 22 million man hours, with 12,000 daily workers
on-site.
The Burj Khalifa opened the following year as part of a large-scale, mixed-use development
called Downtown Dubai, which included other city landmarks such as the Dubai Fountain
and the Dubai Mall.
Downtown Dubai cost $20 billion!!
In addition to the 160-story tower itself, the plans for the development included a separate,
six-story office annex, a two-story pool annex, and an adjacent podium structure.
The structure is primarily made of 280,000 square meters of reinforced concrete, and
special mixes of concrete were made to ensure the building’s ability to withstand pressure.
Extensive tests were required to ensure that the tower would be able to withstand high
winds, especially at its upper levels.
The Burj Khalifa contains several floors of permanent residences, a top-of-the-line Armani
Hotel spanning the 39th floor, and restaurants offering various international cuisines.
There are several observatories throughout the building, including the highest in the
world, located on the 148th floor.
It’s not just tall, it’s megatall!!
2.
LANGKAWI SKY BRIDGE
Located on top of Malaysia’s Machinchang Mountain at 2,170 feet above sea level, the
Langkawi Sky Bridge is a 410-f00t long, curved pedestrian cable-stayed bridge.
And just getting to it is a chore!
The top station is the first point of access, and visitors are transported there via the
Langkawi Cable Car, which is the world’s steepest skycab.
From there, visitors are taken to the bridge by an inclined lift called the SkyGlide.
The bridge cost $1.2 million and was built in just a year, between August 2003 and August
2004.
To build the bridge, its parts were lifted atop the mountain by helicopter, where it
was assembled into position.
It was opened to the public in April 2005 and is the longest free span and curved bridge
in the world.
The bridge accommodates up to 250 people at a time and is suspended from a single, 269-foot-tall
pylon that is anchored to a concrete pad below.
Due to its curved nature, visitors are offered views of the lush jungle below and the surrounding
mountainous landscape from various perspectives that simply can’t be offered by a straight
bridge.
1.
PANAMA CANAL
Building this entirely manmade, 48-mile-long waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans came with numerous challenges.
The idea for the construction of a canal to shorten the journey around the southern tip
of South America emerged as early as the 16th century.
During the 1880’s, a French construction team was forced to abandon the project due
to technological and financial constraints.
Finally, in 1904, the United States commenced with the project.
Now we take it for granted, but in the past, it was a 12,000 mile journey to get from one
side of the US to the other, around 67 days if you were lucky and had good weather.
To date, the building of the Panama Canal remains one of history’s largest and most
difficult engineering projects.
It required massive manpower, with 40,000 workers from 50 countries working on the project
for ten hours a day, six days a week.
The entire island of Manhattan could have been buried twelve feet deep in the rubble
and dirt that was excavated for the nearly 50-mile-long tunnel.
There are three sets of locks throughout the canal, which runs due south, and then east.
Ships are lifted and lowered by the locks, which act as water elevators and are assisted
by the gravity of the canal’s lakes.
On August 14, 1914, the Panama Canal officially opened.
In 1979, control of the canal was taken over by a joint U.S.-Panama commission.
Finally, in 1999 Panama gained sole control of the artificial waterway.
Operating the canal, which is open 24/7 and part of 144 international trade routes, requires
10,000 workers.
The Panama Canal has proven to be a critical advancement in water travel and the shipment
of goods, with 13,000 ships passing through daily.
It takes just eight to ten hours to traverse the canal - far less time than the weeks or
months it would have taken to sail around the entire continent of South America!
That’s all for today, but there’s plenty more where that came from!
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