Extreme Engineering Series 1

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[edit] General Information

Technology Documentary hosted by Joseph Giotta broadcasted as part of DC Extreme Engineering and published by Discovery Channel in 2003 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

Extreme Engineering is a documentary television series that aired on the Discovery Channel and The Science Channel. The program features futuristic and ongoing engineering projects.The show was renamed Build It Bigger in the United States but retains its name when broadcast in Europe.

[edit] Sky City

Sky City 1000 is a possible future urban supertall skyscraper project aimed at helping put an end to major congestion and lack of greenspace in the Tokyo, Japan metropolitan area.

The plan consists of a building 1,000 metres (3,281 ft) tall and 400 m (1,312 ft) wide at the base, and a total floor area of 8 km2 (3.1 sq mi). The design, proposed in 1989 by Takenaka Corporation, would house between 35,000 and 36,000 full-time residents, as well as 100,000 workers. It comprises 14 concave dish-shaped "Space Plateaus" stacked one upon the other. The interior of the plateaus would contain greenspace, and on the edges, on the sides of the building, would be the apartments. Also included in the building would be offices, commercial facilities, schools, theatres, and other modern amenities.

[edit] Subways in America

East Side Access is a public works project being undertaken by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City, designed to bring the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) into a new East Side station to be built below and incorporated into Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. Access to the East Side of Manhattan has long been a wish of LIRR riders who work there but must use the Long Island Rail Road's Manhattan terminal at the congested Pennsylvania Station on the West Side, which is shared with Amtrak and NJ Transit riders. A 1998 study showed that only 36% of all jobs in Midtown are within walking distance of Penn Station, while almost 70% are within walking distance of Grand Central, the other major Manhattan rail terminal. (There is some overlap, and some jobs are not within walking distance of either facility.) Direct service to the East Side would allow many riders to walk to work, and others to use fewer subway and bus transfers, cutting up to 40 minutes off their daily travel time. The addition of a new Manhattan terminal will also increase capacity on the LIRR.

[edit] Transatlantic Tunnel

A transatlantic tunnel is a theoretical tunnel which would span the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe and would carry mass transit of some type—trains are envisioned in most proposals. Using advanced technologies, speeds of 500 to 8,000 kilometres per hour (310 to 5,000 mph) are envisioned.
Plans for such a tunnel have not progressed beyond the conceptual stage, and no one is actively pursuing such a project. Most conceptions of the tunnel have it between the United States and the United Kingdom, or more specifically, New York City and London. The main barriers to constructing such a tunnel are cost—as much as $175 billion and the limits of current materials science.

[edit] City in a Pyramid

The Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid is a proposed project for construction of a massive pyramid over Tokyo Bay in Japan. The structure would be about 14 times higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza, and would house 750,000 people. If built, it would be the largest man-made structure in Earth's history. The structure would be 730 meters AMSL, including 5 stacked trusses, each with similar dimensions to that of the great pyramid of Giza. This pyramid would help answer Tokyo's increasing lack of space, although the project would only handle 1/47th of the Greater Tokyo Area's population. The idea partially stems from the fictional architectural marvel of the Tyrell Corporation, which appear several times in the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner, as a duo of futuristic pyramidal structures.

[edit] Bridging the Bering Strait

A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the Bering Strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka, Russia, and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, United States. The bridge or tunnel would provide an overland connection linking Asia, Africa and Europe with North America and South America. The Bering Strait could be spanned by a series of three bridges via the Diomede Islands for a total distance of about 80 km (58 miles). The two long bridges would each be slightly longer in length than the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, currently the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world. The construction of such a bridge or tunnel would face unprecedented engineering, political, and financial challenges.

[edit] Tunneling under the Alps

The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a railway tunnel under construction in Switzerland. With a planned length of 57 km (35.4 mi) and a total of 153.5 km (95.4 mi) of tunnels, shafts and passages planned, it will be the longest tunnel (of all railway and road tunnels) in the world upon completion, ahead of the current record holder, the Seikan Tunnel (connecting the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō). The project is designed to feature two separate tunnels containing one track each. The tunnel is part of the Swiss AlpTransit project, also known as New Railway Link through the Alps NRLA which also includes the Lötschberg Base Tunnel between the cantons of Berne and Valais. Like the Lötschberg tunnel, it is intended to bypass winding mountain routes and establish a direct route suitable for high speed rail and heavy freight trains. On completion it is expected to decrease the current 3.5 hours travel time from Zürich to Milan by one hour. It will also reduce the time between Zürich and Lugano to 1 hour 40 minutes. The two portals will be near the villages of Erstfeld, Canton Uri and Bodio, Canton Ticino.

[edit] Building Hong Kongs Airport

The airport opened for commercial operations in 1998, replacing Kai Tak, and is an important regional trans-shipment centre, passenger hub and gateway for destinations in Mainland China (with over 40 destinations) and the rest of Asia. Despite a relatively short history, Hong Kong International Airport has won seven Skytrax World Airport Awards in just ten years. HKIA also operates one of the world's largest passenger terminal buildings and operates twenty-four hours a day. The airport is operated by the Airport Authority Hong Kong and is the primary hub for Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Hong Kong Express Airways, Hong Kong Airlines, Air Hong Kong (cargo) and Asia Jet (private). It is a focus city for Air New Zealand, Qantas and Virgin Atlantic, all of which use Hong Kong as a stopover point for flights on the Kangaroo Route between Australasia and Europe. United Airlines also uses Hong Kong as a stopover point for flights from the United States to Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City.

[edit] Hollands Barriers to the Sea

The Maeslantkering is a storm surge barrier in the Nieuwe Waterweg waterway located between the towns of Hoek van Holland and Maassluis, Netherlands, 51°57′18.98″N 4°09′49.63″ECoordinates: 51°57′18.98″N 4°09′49.63″E, which automatically closes when needed. It is part of
the Delta Works and it is one of largest moving structures on Earth rivalling with the Green Bank Telescope in the USA and the Bagger 288 excavator in Germany.

[edit] Bostons Big Dig

The Big Dig is the unofficial name of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T), a megaproject that rerouted the Central Artery (Interstate 93), the chief highway through the heart of Boston, into a 3.5 mile (5.6 km) tunnel under the city. The project also included the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel (extending Interstate 90 to Logan International Airport), the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge over the Charles River, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway in the space vacated by the previous I-93 elevated roadway. Initially, the plan was also to include a rail connection between Boston's two major train terminals. The project concluded on December 31, 2007, when the partnership between program manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority ended.

[edit] Widening the Panama Canal

The Third Set of Locks Project is a megaproject that will expand the Panama Canal. The expansion will be greater than at any time since the canal's construction. The Panama Canal Authority proposed the project after years of study. Panamanian President Martín Torrijos presented the plan on April 24, 2006 and Panamanian citizens approved it in a national referendum by 76.8% of the vote on October 22, 2006. The project will double the canal's capacity and allow more traffic.