Building China’s $12BN Mega Airport

China is no stranger to record-breaking infrastructure projects already home to the world's largest dam longest ocean crossing and most extensive high-speed rail network the country has now completed one of the largest airports ever conceived [Music] home to one of the world's largest economies the demand for air travel in and out of China is extreme as the nation's center of political power and as the second largest city in a country of more than 1.3 billion people the pressure on Beijing is particularly intense plans for a second International Airport were first proposed in 2008 while the existing Beijing Capital International was undergoing a 3.5 billion US dollar expansion ahead of the Summer Olympic Games despite these works forecasts predicted that even with its expansion to cater for 83 million passengers annually the airport would exceed its capacity within just a few years at the extension being completed sure enough the facility reached capacity in 2012 and by 2016 more than a hundred million passengers were travelling through the airport each year [Music] to alleviate pressure and safeguard Beijing's economic growth a new hub was conceived with initial proposals suggesting nine runways and capacity for 200 million passengers each year the vast dashing International was originally intended to replace Beijing capital as the city's main airport however in 2014 the decision was taken to operate both facilities simultaneously and to scale back the new airport's design initially constructed with four runways and capacity for 72 million passengers each year dashing international can be expanded to seven runways and could serve up to a hundred million passengers annually when fully developed plans for the new airport were released by Zaha Hadid Architects in early 2015 collaborating with Airport specialists a dpi on the main terminal building Hadid moved away from the linear model of airport design which often created sprawling facilities and instead introduced a six-pointed star arrangement that puts passengers less than 600 meters around an eight minute walk from any departure gate while one arm of the building operates as an administrative center the remaining 5 accommodate the airport's 79 departure gates dashing international incorporates a number of high speed rail and Metro links to Beijing and the surrounding provinces the airport will have a dedicated stop on the new Beijing jung-an intercity railway placing it just 20 minutes from Beijing while the intercity railway connector will provide a direct link to Beijing Capital International and neighbouring regions there will also be a link to the city's subway system while many airport links around the world deliver passengers to the outskirts of facilities the numerous connections to dashing international will arrive beneath the terminal enabling direct access to the departure levels in order to withstand the vibrations caused by high-speed trains that can travel up to 250 km/h beneath the terminal in an active seismic zone 1000 anti-seismic isolation barriers were built into the terminals ground floor slab allowing the structure to withstand an earthquake with a magnitude of eight on the Richter scale with a hundred ninety seven thousand passengers expected to use the airport each day dashing international will operate a largely paperless system that features AI facial recognition at check-in self-service bag drop facilities and real-time that mobile baggage tracking it will also be the first airport in the world to operate vertically stacked dual departure and arrival flaws this approach enables faster check-in and security screenings while significantly reducing the distances that passengers travel between connecting flights [Music] extending for over a million square meters dashing internationals terminal building is one of the single largest structures ever built formed from over 1.6 million cubic meters of concrete and some 52,000 tons of steel the building integrates photovoltaic panels and rainwater harvesting systems across its vast undulating roof reaching practical completion in 2018 the first flight inspections took place in January 2019 while finishing touches were made to the terminal buildings interior while the airport offers many of the retail dining and entertainment options found in most hubs dashing International will also feature an interactive pet hotel childcare and nursery facilities and hybrid online retail and dining experiences for passengers meanwhile on the runways aircraft taking off and landing will be protected from birds or civilian drones by an Israeli AI software monitoring system the entire airport cost almost 12 billion US dollars to deliver while this makes it easily one of the world's largest construction projects it is notably less than the projected at 17 billion u.s. dollars required to construct a third runway at London Heathrow having now completed its operational testing dashing International is set to welcome its first flight on the 30th of September 2019 less than five years since construction works began if you enjoyed this video and would like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m

Channel: The B1M

Views: 2,925,330

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, fred mills, the b1m, construction, airport, megaproject, china, beijing, daxing, daxing international, air china, heathrow, infrastructure, 5 airports taking off by 2025, zaha hadid, norman foster, asia, massive construction project, mega construction, air travel

Id: -aWJ5p3X-Yo

Length: 6min 58sec (418 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 31 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/MeMuzzta]

Meanwhile in the UK, Heathrows third runway is costing £14b.

One runway costing more than an entire airport. Crazy.

[u/bustthelock]

Beautiful design. Shades of South American Modernism, mixed with leading edge tech.

[u/[deleted]]

I wonder how many camera's are in there.