Extreme Engineering Machines Building The Most Amazing Megastructures

there's something about watching a colossal machine at work that fills us with awe but is there anything more satisfying than watching something of that scale complete an even more gargantuan task let's find out as we check out some of the world's most extreme engineering machines building amazing mega structures segmental bridge launching machine when you think of building giant bridges for road and rail you probably imagine huge cranes lifting each individual segment into place but that was the past this is the future you're looking at the SL J 932 segmental bridge launcher this 580 ton mega machine manufactured by the Beijing well joint machinery company is designed to slot like a train onto railroad tracks this allows it to transport giant structures on existing railways as well as on roadways after picking up a track girder from its place of origin the bridge launcher will drive onto the pillars of the bridge and lower a pneumatic support structure which anchors the machine to the first pillar this allows it to extend itself out to the second and third pillars depositing the girder it's carrying as it does so from here the workmen can weld everything into place before moving on to the next girder the transport of the machine itself relies on a series of 64 wheels split into four sections each able to rotate 90 degrees to help steering on space confined ground the development of this amazing machine has fast tracked transport infrastructure in China where 24,000 miles of high-speed railway track are planned for construction by 2025 that's more than the combined high-speed rail networks of all countries in the European Union talk about getting connected tunnel boring machines have you ever wondered how new subway tunnels are underground highways are dug through the middle of busy cities this is a giant infrastructure undertaking that needs to be tackled from below usually with the help of tunnel boring machines a great example of this is the ongoing construction of Australia's forests field Airport link it currently requires the use of two tunnel boring machines designed by German company Henrik costing approximately 20 million each with their 39 foot radius rotating cutter wheels these machines easily break material away from the tunnels rock face the gravel is then transferred to the belt conveyor system via a screw conveyor whilst the hydraulic system continuously pushes the Machine forward reinforced concrete segments are then installed matching the tunnels curvature these form rings to reinforce the tunnel the machine pours and once each ring is completed the hydraulics are able to push against the new segment to propel it forwards in Australia's force field Airport Link project around 9,000 rings are currently being placed along five miles of tunnels it might not seem far but in order to prevent major vibrations and disruptions technology being used in this way needs to go very slow because of this the two machines working on Australia's Airport Link project started in late 2017 and they're not expected to be finished until late 2020 slow and steady may win the race but at least it isn't boring tower cranes cranes are some of the most incredible pieces of mega machinery that many of the city dwellers see every day and making the most of their machines in the best of ways one of the world's leading crane companies lever constantly put their engineers and machines to the test this comes in many forms from customer celebration days where they get big cranes to lift smaller trains to installations showcasing what their engineers can accomplish in their spare time but their practical applications are where their cranes become truly impressive especially when it comes to tower cranes construction site ground space is a precious commodity so having multiple vehicles and lifting equipment can be more of a hassle than a hell tower cranes remove that complication by hosting all lifting and moving activity in the free air space above the site freeing up ground room depending on the series levers the largest cranes can reach as tall as 1500 feet for specialized constructions of exceptionally tall buildings like st. Peterburg slocked a tower while most tower cranes aren't quite so tall the shorter ones are no less impressive wood some able to lift loads approaching 42 tons all of this is made possible by incredibly resilient thick steel lifting cables with thinner strands around a larger central core to distribute the way the modular design of tower cranes means they can be easily erected by other smaller cranes and can also be disassembled in a similar way for ease of construction however the central pillars of tower cranes are often built into the mega structures they create some tower cranes can even climb well inside a building reaching higher as construction progresses this central positioning allows for fast construction of mega structures like China's t30 hotel a 30 story skyscraper with 330 guestrooms built back in 2012 with the tower crane at its center construction of this colossal building was completed in just 15 days that's one high-speed high-rise Georgia Power nuclear plant tower cranes may be the undisputed king of skyscraper construction but when you need to move something heavier a little further than they can reach being static becomes a problem construction plots like the nuclear plant vaudeville and Georgia can span over 3,200 acres which is almost large enough to house Central Park four times over in large plots like these crawler cranes are the weapon of choice for several reasons for starters units 3 & 4 of Georgia's Vauxhall expansion project had nuclear containment roofs weighing in at over 900 tons apiece being a hundred and thirty-five feet in diameter and 37 feet tall each of these rings weighed more than two jumbo jets with even the heaviest load tower cranes typically topping out around 50 tons they needed something with a little more power so they went with the Lampson LTL 2600 a fully mobile crane with a 400 foot boom that can lift up to 1,200 tons making it perfect for this heavy weight job now that's what you call a powerful reach hasta han Steen Riggs far have you ever wondered how an oil rig is constructed so far out at sea these are some of the biggest nautical structures in the world and the colossal machines that help build them are just as impressive take for example the world's largest oil rig the hasta hansteen the spar platform of this incredible structure was built in South Korea and measured in its 656 feet long 164 feet in diameter and over 46,000 tons in weight this incredible mega structure needed to be transported all the way from Korea to the coast of Norway which is where the global market leader of heavy marine transport stepped in this is the bicyclist dockwise Vanguard a semi-submersible heavy transport vessel which can sink over 90 feet beneath the waves allowing heavy machinery to float onto the platform instead of being laborious Lee lifted the latest versions of these ballast design vessels accommodate an astonishing dead weight capacity of over a hundred and seventeen thousand tonnes the journey took just over two months traveling 14,500 nautical miles when it arrived at its designated site in December 2018 50 million litres of water were pumped in to raise the hull and it slowly ascended like an oceanic Colossus teen young project so you've seen what goes into constructing the underground portion of an oil rig but where do all field workers live and store equipment while at sea the answer is up top but as we saw what they asked the hansteen spar platform nothing of this scale is ever built from scratch in the middle of the ocean the top of the taeneung bkt and g field rig was no exception to this rule built offshore the project required a 4,200 tonne topside and an 850 tonne living quarter on top of that now lifting things on land is reasonably straightforward as most machines can be grounded and counterweighted on the earth Marine lifting vessels though require complex engineering to ensure that the entire operation doesn't capsize for an undertaking like the taeneung rig which was at the time the world heaviest nautical lift installation they needed to bring in the big guns and boy did they this Great Beast is the fantastically named Asian Hercules the third an offshore heavy lift sheer leg crane this self-propelled floating machine reaches a height of almost 350 feet and can carry out lifts exceeding 5,000 tons it may be wondering how something lifting such heavy loads in the middle of the ocean stays upright without capsizing the secret lies in the ballast tanks that skirt the edges of its base each is filled with precisely calculated amounts of sea water to add stability and act as additional counterweight to the objects lifted by the crane the large white base platform's natural buoyancy takes care of the rest as you can see it all worked amazingly well and the asian hercules the third made impressively light work of this gigantic installation Wiccans irwin farm installation if you've flown on a plane in the past few years you may have spotted one of these offshore wind farms in the sea but if you ever considered how big these renewable energy generating wind turbines are up close while onshore wind turbines can reach 575 feet in height offshore turbines can hit a gargantuan 853 feet for perspective that's over half the height of the Empire State Building much like other offshore projects these colossal structures need a host of mega machines to move them into place the wick injure offshore windfarm installation was undertaken in 2017 placing over 70 turbines off the coast of Germany and they used the Fred Olson wind carrier to complete the most fundamental stages of the job this Oberer machine is a jack-up vessel which is a ship that contains four self elevating ballasts that settle on the ocean floor and hoist the ship above the waves this means construction of the giant structures isn't limited to the height of the ship's attached crane and allows the offshore operators a greater degree for sition during building the crane itself can support a maximum weight of almost 800 tons and slots the individual turbine pieces together like a kid assembling a Lego set [Music] the head will put some wind in your sails Wiggins Island tandem cranes while will hopefully someday reach a world solely powered by renewable energy we're currently still relying on fossil fuels like coal gas and oil so the creation of gigantic new coal export terminals is still a priority and these terminals continue to be among our greatest engineering feats take the Wiggins Island coal export terminal for example which was designed to export over 120 million tons of coal from Australia's East Coast every year to achieve this they need an infrastructure on a mammoth scale coal stacking bridges are an essential component and to build this 1.1 mile jetty mobile cranes with rotational flexibility were essential this caught for two lamps an LTL 2,600 transy lift cranes working in tandem to lift these enormous structures into place and they did it with seriously impressive maneuverability then it was a matter of welding everything in place with the help of an army of cherry picker lists it's like they say teamwork makes the dream work cofferdams ever wondered how the legs of bridges get built right in the middle of a body of water it's a fascinating process and involves two little things or rather enormous things called sheet piling and copper dams sheet piling involves the interlocking and overlocking of huge steel beams which is a method most commonly used in constructing these enormous metal cylinders formerly known as coffer dams these steel enclosures are dropped into riverbeds and sea beds after which the water is pumped out creating a dry environment for workers to undertake tasks like bridge foundation building in some cases like this project from Great Yarmouth in the UK enormous sheer Lake crane barges are employed to lift each of the giant steel cells out into the water the particular cells used in Great Yarmouth each weighing in excess of 400 tons were lifted from the quay side and floated into position but in some cases the shape weight and height of the structure make it difficult for this kind of exact positioning in these cases the copper dams are launched straight down a slope right into position like the 800 ton box Yangtze River Bridge copper dams once in the water they can then be gently floated into location fixed to the riverbed and drained so the next stage of construction can begin comfort dam that's impressive which of these machines and their megastructures impressed you the most let me know in the comments below and thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: BE AMAZED

Views: 2,137,916

Rating: 4.7866297 out of 5

Keywords: beamazed, be amazed, top 10, another level, extreme engineering, mega machines, extreme engineering machines building the most amazing megastructures, extreme engineering machines building, engineering machines, amazing machines, amazing structure, extreme machines, extreme machine, amazing structures, amazing inventions you must see, amazing inventions at home, mega machines full episodes

Id: PYd4Oa7DoE0

Length: 13min 17sec (797 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 17 2020