palmo Sicily in this port city a Titan in the world of the ship building industry is changing the face of the cruise business here at one of the biggest dry do in the Mediterranean cruise ships are literally put under the knife some of the biggest vessels on the sea are cut in half and lengthened with an entirely new section undergoing a new and complex process called jumbo [Music] [Music] isation palmo Sicily buzzes with the intoxicating mix of cultures that as a result of its Domination by the Greek Roman Arab and Spanish civilizations over the last 3,000 years famous for the influence of Mafia gangsters it's also heralded across the globe for its beautiful beaches breathtaking scenery and complex history palmo is not only a well visited location for tourists it is a major Italian trading port Dawn Rises at the construction site where fin cantieri engineers and ship experts are hard at work moving tens of thousands of metric tons with near laser Precision we're cutting a ship that's 28 M wide with a height of 50 m from the bottom to deck 11 with a tolerance of just a few millim overall the foli skito system has raised 15,000 metric tons after the enlargement of the ship she will have an added capacity of about 500 passengers making even bigger ships is Big Business this construction site is owned and operated by fin cantieri which builds some of the largest ships across the globe fin cantieri is in the business of constructing cruise ships barges and Military vessels here in palmo the company has pioneered a ship recycling program to meet demand for bigger and bigger vessels for the lucrative Cruise industry in the process they have created a thriving New Market for upgraded [Music] ships the Renaissance program is a massive engineering project the lengthening of four ships for mediteran Anan Shipping Company MSC each of these four ships the MSC armonia synfonia Opera and L are undergoing the jumbo isation process due to be completed by the end of 2015 the repairs and enlargement division that does what you can see behind me is just one of the divisions of [Music] finti the ship Ys here in palmo have got the technique down to a fine [Music] art the tools used to lengthen a ship once cut in half are massive movers skid shoes are like a hydraulic train that moves along steel rails on which the carriages are pushed horizontally by hydrolic levers acting on the sleepers the skid Sho system is comput computer controlled and powered by diesel fuel packs each unit has the capacity to lift more than 1,000 metric tons these particular skid shoes are a brand new design by The Fad joli engineering department before the jumbo isation process in the palmo docks foli delivered into the yard no less than 22 skid shoes and built three rails to hold the wide Hull of the cruise line minor as it was being cut in two the weight of the front half of the ship is supported by vertical cylinders and each skid shoe is able to support 1,000 tons getting the ship resting on skid shoes however involved a lengthy Preparatory process first the dry dog had to be emptied using massive pumps the operation took a whole day once the dry dock was empty the skides on which the ship's Hull would rest and then be pulled apart once sliced through had to be positioned at the bottom of the dock and the electrical parts removed before the dock was flooded the amazing process of jumbo isation starts with the creation of the new segment of the ship that has to be positioned in such a way that on the big day the whole process goes according to plan in May 2015 the fin cantieri yard successfully floated a new segment that was to be used to lengthen the MSC Cruise liner Opera the new segment specially built to lengthen the ship was first ceremonially floated proving that it would contribute to the buoyancy of the lengthened ship and then positioned in the dock where the massive Opera was to rest for the time of its complex high-tech lengthening surgery filipo Odo is the finer yard director and has been working on the jumbo isation of ships in pal Mo Sicily for decades this Dry Dock has a capacity 400,000 cubic M it's one of the biggest in the Mediterranean Sea to give you an idea it surfaces four football pitches in length it allows us to do this process that we're doing because it is wide enough as I've said before to allow the new section to be moved next to the ship if it were narrower we could not do this this is the reason why we use this stock in the past as well for this kind of [Music] operation once all was ready the dock could be filled again slowly so as not to move the skid shoes as soon as the dock was full the massive cruise ship could be sailed in it was carefully positioned over the skid shoes and the dry dock was emptied once more the ship and the new segment slowly sank to the bottom of the dock and the ship rested snugly on the skid shoes that would become its operating table the first thing we did in the dock before the ship arrived at the dry dock was to put the skid shoes in place that's before the ship arrived at that point the dock was flooded so the skid shoes were submerged underwater thanks to this the ship could be sailed into the dock and positioned onto the skit shoes as the dock was emptied at this point once it was settled the dock was completely emptied of water until dry this is an operation that has been done many times in these yards a specialty developed here since the 1980s the Poo yards has a lot of experience the first enlargement process was done in 1980 to lengthen the real and over the years we have done several others this enlargement process of the msse Opera is the 27th operation in the series the next will be applied to the last of the four msse ships in the Renaissance program with the MSC lria it will close the cycle of the enlargement of MSC [Music] ships the MSC Opera is 21.25 M long and 28.8 M wide and when fully operational hosts 2,199 passengers offering 878 cabins and Suites luxury bars a theater a casino shops and many other attractions with the new segment slaughtered into the middle the capacity will increase to 2,700 passengers which means that the ship will have to carry more food and offer yet more services it is just one of the hundreds of massive cruise ships that Grace the ocean waves offering vacations to a market of 22.2 million people with a turnover of $ 39.6 billion it is a growing tourism segment but not without its own safety issues on the 13th of January 2012 the giant cruise ship Costa Concordia crashed into the rocks of the island of jilo in the tuskan archipelago leading not only to the world's largest ever ship salvage operation but also to criminal and civil trials in which the safety of these Mega ships was questioned American lawyer John EES was one of the most outspoken critics of the cruise industry you know this industry has continued to just grow bigger and bigger and bigger Coast Concord is not even the largest ship the largest ship uh is 6,000 a passenger vessel the problem here is that is that these ships are topheavy they do this for profit because they know that they can sell a balcony space for much more than they can sell space under or below the water line however fin cantieri ship Builders say tests on the structural Integrity of the ships they have stretched prove that these ships are not weakened by jumbo isation safety is not an issue in ship lengthening the lengthen ship has to satisfy strength criteria and resistance to stresses that it will encounter during its life at sea exactly like any other ship so from the resistance point of view it makes no difference whether this is a lengthen ship or a ship originally built with these Dimensions fin cantieri has just delivered one of the 10 largest cruise ships in the world to its clients princess Cruisers the Regal Princess and other massive liners regularly come off the production line at these types of shipyards around Italy from triest to palmo if you were to compare the construction work we do here at the Poo site with the construction of new ships the first thing you would notice is the timing to construct a new ship from the very beginning to when it's ready to take to the sea with passengers would take at least two and a half years here we estimate even When taking into consideration the work of Engineers that we can finished the ship in 9 months the jumbo isation process cuts down on costs resources and the years of Labor that it would take to build new cruise ships the current series of four cruise ships that fin cantieri is working on will cost €200 million E when complete that's just a fraction of the cost of building a single new cruise ship like the Regal Princess which which carries a price tag of up to a billion [Music] e stretching an already massive liner takes equally huge lifting and pulling machines this is the MSC Opera one of the finest cruise ships to sail the Seas built to in 2003 in Marseilles France that just 10 years after launch she is ready to be lengthened to host yet more passengers is an indication of how fast the cruise industry is growing she is about ready to go under the knife here in the Palo Dry [Music] Dock engineers and technicians are tightening the cables and position ing the skid shoes that hold her in place as preparations get underway she is about 250 M long and after it's all finished with the lengthening process she will be about 275 M long the new section is about 25 M long the beam Remains the Same of course and is about 29 M the MSC Opera is 59,0 58 gross tons which refers not to its real weight but to its cargo transport capacity and so its potential commercial value while the ship's dry weight is the weight that the skid shoes have to lift and carry Transport company foli supplied fin cantieri with skid shoes and trailers to do this heavy lift job the team on site is led by loris janini the skito system combines both lifting and transport the lifting function is done with hydraulic jacks which take on the vertical weight and are therefore able to provide vertical lift the skit shoes also have another hydraulic system that allows them to apply a horizontal sliding action once settled in the dry dock the engineers ordered it to be cut in two and prepared for the new midship block to be inserted the new segment was built in the fin cantieri yards over the past 5 months so as to keep the Opera working on the cruise routes while it waited for its Mega stretch building a new chunk of ship to add to a vessel that was not built here was problematic but before fincantieri could begin construction on a new midsection they had to be absolutely sure of the ship's measurements and specifications for this they had to go back to the original plans and Technical documents of the ship Andrew tozo is the project manager in fanti's palmo site he is looking over the vessel's technical documents to be absolutely sure of its measurements and specifications he oversees the logistics behind the massive jumbo operation and make sure that things run smoothly with over a 100 workers on the job the operation starts with the examination of technical documents that were made by the ship Builder this is a ship that wasn't constructed initially by finti so we have to ask the ship's owner for the technical documents in order to start the project obviously before the ship arrives the construction site has already completed construction of the ship's new section and this new section is completed in every way the ventilation system the electrical wires the cabins the bathroom boxes it will be completely finished so that in the end all we will need to do is connect the forward and rear faces of the new segment only once we've seen the documents can we start our part of the project so on the basis of those documents we've shaped our project but before we can begin constructing the new section and as we've said tolerances can be compared to a single blade of grass against a whole football pitch we can't just sort of guess or hope that the original plans are sufficiently precise and don't need to be verified before construction so once we've put together the preliminary documents we go on board to carry out final checks to validate the the initial data and only then can we put together the whole [Music] project the new section was fitted with all the necessary specifications so that the ship would be continuous from bow to stern the new section was 25 M long each ship gets a custommade segment to insert it's not just the metal plates beams and frames that need to be cut a cruise ship like the Opera is connected together by a maze of electric wires Hydraulics plumbing and ventilation ducts that need to be sliced and [Music] rebuilt in addition to cutting the beams and decks of the ship and the hole of the ship all the wires that run throughout the ship are cut on the same line the electrical wires will need to be reconnected so as to run through the entire ship and they will be tagged with a code to enable this connection we're talking about around 2,000 wires that are cut marked and then reconnected the same happens with the pipes and the ventilation conduits like every ship first the double Keel was laid and then as it grew before the eyes of the engineers that built it it assumed the qualities of a viable floating vessel the new section was built to the same specifications as the ship it would go into and of course the construction materials and tools were state-of-the-art light and transportable it took about 5 months to complete the segment with the utility and Furnishings that match the rest of the ship at the end of construction it was duly blessed in the presence of the local authorities the new section of the ship was fitted with the 2,000 electrical wires and plumbing pipes so that when the ship was extended an extra 25 M all of the systems would connect the ship before enlargement has a gross tonnage of 60,000 tons and after it larged it will be 65,000 tons in terms of displacement so the real weight of the ship will be from 30,000 tons to 32,500 tons the whole extent of the increased weight comes from the new section in that 5 months the new section was completely outfitted with carpets cabins and [Music] bathrooms the jumbo isation process is fast and efficient so the ship can be returned to commissioned Service as soon as [Music] possible also for the cutting of the ship well we can split it up into two phases all the preparations for lighting the blowtorch and cutting the ship start when they remove all the fittings when we say fittings we mean the cabins the beds the mattresses the bathrooms the carpets once all these things are all removed we get down to the raw metal of the ship once the ship was stripped to its iron frame metal workers marked a precise plan for cutting the ship by referring to the original technical documents of the vessel experts measured the plating and beams in order for them to be cut with precise laser accuracy a physical Mark was made on The Cutting line Where Metal Workers would go in with blow torches and melt the metal apart after this process Opera was ready to be stretched sitting snugly in the massive Dry Dock of poo Sicily resting on skid shoes that not only took the load but also would later be used to move the bow and Stern sections of the ship apart the side of the ship or actually all the flat surfaces are cut semi-automatically there machines that are positioned so that the cut can be carried out automatically using normal asling torches basically with the same asling blow torches that are very common the curved parts of the ship the round bulbous parts are cut by hand by experienced metal workers not all the areas that need to be cut are easily accessible some of the spaces are very cramped but workers squeeze together and work for hours to finish the project on schedule the number of people needed on the ship depends on how many people can work in the same space without interfering with each other also because the ship isn't just randomly cut to be able to preserve the ship's structural Integrity it's cut in a special sequence you can't just attack the ship's decks and plates simultaneously so basically we have about 40 people all cutting a particular section at the same time and that process should usually take around 4 days as the sun set over the port of palmo the dry dock was a buzz with workers ready to perform a massive nighttime stretching operation the MSC Opera was about to undergo an incredible upgrade in this huge dry do construction site where it had been cut in half workers had verified the original technical documents of the ship and were about to proceed with the first stages of jumbo isation after these checks they could be certain that the new section would fit into place with absolute Precision the bow of the ship slid forward ready for operations the next day once lengthened she would be able to sail the waters with as much ease and with the same fluid dynamics and physics as she had as a shorter ship the Italian company fat ji works all over the world providing heavy lifting services for both commercial marine and land operations foli and Fin antii have taken on a massive lift project together to stretch a cruise liner while jumbo isation sounds simple in theory lifting and transporting these massive loads is a complicated job foli became involved in the jumbo isation process that consists of cutting the ship in half in two sections one of those parts was then supported by the foli skidding system that proceeded to move it 28 M this task was combined with another lifting system the spmt to insert the segment between the two extremities once this additional segment was added the part of the ship that had been skidded 28 M was then moved [Music] back 4 days after the ship was cut in half the foli skid shoes began their slow work Engineers made sure that the skid shoes were working at the same speed so as to provide an even Force along the whole Hull it took 6 hours for a gaping hole to appear on the ship where the new segment could be slipped in over the next day when the cut was completed we began operations and took the weight of the ship on the skid shoes and the bow of the ship was lifted with 22 skid shoes with 1,000 ton capacity each in all the foli skidding system lifted 15,000 tons the two most critical technologies that foli provided for the jumbo isation project were the skid shoes and the spmt transportation and lifting machines spmt stands for self-propelled modular transporter they are specialized trailers that allow for the distribution of heavy weights over a large area they are used worldwide for moving oversized non-detachable super structure caros they have a powerful engine and hydraulic pumps and must have fast response for synchronized steering and lifting both systems that we've utilized in our operations here the skid shoes and the spmt guarantee all of the six degrees of freedom so they allow obviously the horizontal advancement the transverse movement and also as we've said before vertical lift [Music] spmt like these are widely used all over the world for this ability to position heavy loads with all 6° of movement it's one of the few technologies that can position these loads in tight spaces a single operator can control the spmt lifting and lowering heavy loads vertically as well as moving them forward in rever verse and side to side on top of all that they allow for the rotation with respect to the three axes all the different directions of movement are covered by the systems we are using the purpose of all this is to make sure we can align the additional section with the MSC ship sections with millimetric Precision spmt can carry a load of over 10 m tons per square meter this ability to hold a mass distributed over a large area is crucial when transporting loads so heavy they can crush the ground and crack the concrete underneath we can move huge structures offloading very little weight onto the ground so keeping within the boundaries of what the surface can sustain although the spmt can take a uniform weight distributed across Ross a large area they also have the ability to be taken apart so that each axle is its own individual unit the separate units can be locked together from the front and the back to build an individual train-like transportation system or they can be locked side by side to allow for extra strength and stabilization the spms can be placed together both one in front of the other and also so side by side for today's operations we can put together 80 axles the weight of the new section was too large for the spms to be able to move it so we chose the skidding system utilizing the skid shoes meanwhile the additional segment had a relatively low weight so we could use the spms alone the MSC Opera sits in the dry dock of the bustling Italian port city of palmo the ship has been cut and the bow moved forward 28 M however before Andrew too gives the order to insert the new section the yard takes advantage of the Gap in the ship to fill it with fittings that otherwise would be too large to be inserted through the existing doors and Port holes an extraordinary refit is underway while the ship waits for its extra length of Hull the ship consists and is constructed as an iron or rather a steel structure and inside we find the fittings so when the passengers arrive they don't see the frame they just see the carpets and go into their cabins the objects that we put in the ship are mostly small objects so they can be brought aboard the ship through any normal door or temporarily removed window which is easy many of the ship's rooms are part of boxes that can be pre-built and pre-loaded to keep construction on the ship at a minimum then when we think about the boxes such as the bathroom boxes when the passengers enter they'll have toilets baths and sinks these are built out of fiberglass and are put together on land the yard inserts oversized items such as bathroom boxes at this stage but even if other bulky units need to be mounted after the ship has been sealed shut several different methods can be attempted here we have two possibilities the first possibility if we're doing an enlargement is to see how much we can load when the three blocks of the ship are separate if this is impossible we'll make a temporary opening in the ship's hole will punch holes in the ship's Hall to load the material the new section prefabricated with all the utilities already in installed sat on eight massive trailers ready to be slipped in each trailer had 80 wheels that could pivot independently 180° the spmt could also lift the new section to ensure millimetric Precision while sliding it in the skid shoes had moved the bow forward 28 M enough for the amazing spmt trailers to Slide the new segment into the new space slowly the massive wheels of the trailers began to move then after a few meters they rotated bringing the new section in line with the rest of the ship everything had been precalculated like a gigantic tight curve an error of judging distance could leave the new section stuck on the corner of the cut ship then the ship needed to be pulled back together again once again The Fad joli skid shoes began their Herculean task of moving the ship's bow back to where the stump section had been inserted once again the operation had to be carefully monitored so that the skid shoes moved at the same speed uniformly Shifting the section to connect with the rest of the ship with millimetric Precision here the hydraulic elevators came into play to bring the edges of the sliced beams and Hull to perfectly connect with the new segment how do we attach two metal plates together with the welder obviously but it could be an electrode or with a wire depending on the technique being used what's the maximum distance between these two plates that I can physically weld together only a few millimet so imagine cutting a ship that as we've said earlier is 28 M wide with a height of 50 m from the bottom to the 11th Deck with a margin of air of just a few millimet in order for the welder's bead to connect each separate piece of metal both pieces must be close together the closer together the cleaner and the stronger the welder's line will be obviously the hull must be watertight so the welds must be perfect all the way around the ship here in the bustling Port City of palmo fin cantieri Shipyard workers are busy working on the jumbo isation of the MSC Opera now that the ship is once again a single unit the furnishings and final utilities have to be completed all once the whole of the ship is reconnected that's to say the three parts of the ship the bow of the ship the new section and the stern so once the hole and the decks have been put back together we have to reconnect the plumbing the electrical wires and we have to test these systems that were taken apart due to the cut the ship has been stretched with surgical precision and now the workers can get onard board and begin turning it into a functioning Cruise liner again the scars of recent surgery are visible but soon the ship will get a new paint job as well most passengers will never know the cruise liner they are on was once a miniature version of itself as the cruise industry grows and the ships get bigger vital questions have Arisen about the safety of thousand thousands of passengers inhabiting these massive floating hotels far from the seashore the second problem with these ships is that they're created designed to keep you shopping on board to keep you gambling on board to keep you entertained and and using the inside of the vessel and so it becomes a lath in an accident these ships uh become a trap the new hydraulic and electrical systems must be tested while the ship is in the dry dock before they are tested at C if the systems fail at C it could be very difficult for the company to return the ship to the dry dock to continue work the ship Builder's responsibility is to ensure the structural solidity of the ship says The Thinker yard director filipo utto the plant is tested in the dock before the sea tests to ensure that the ship's main plant works the structural aspect of enlarging a ship is the most interesting part of the process because we have to think about how we will be able to enlarge something and make it function as though it were originally built to that length in the Sea Test we have to verify the maneuverability of the ship which has changed due to its having been lengthened from its original size the propulsion and control systems are tested speed tests are carried out to see how the ship behaves after the lengthening process the ship returns to the dock we complete the last activities and the ship is [Music] delivered there is still much work to be done to make the MSC Opera into a viable seagoing vessel and only many weeks later is the ship ready for service fincantieri meanwhile has found a fast lowcost solution to keeping Cruise companies competitive by stretching ships and increasing the number of passengers they can carry heavy lift and massive Naval engineering are probably the least known part of the cruise business but they are a reliable support partner when it comes to keeping the industry afloat we're adding another piece so all the forces that the sea exerted on the original structure will inevitably change so the structural verifications are definitely the most challenging aspect of the process so how did we commence we try to keep the dimensions of the new section such that we can minimize the changes on the existing [Music] ship the thickness and amount of Steel on the new stump section had to be enough to withstand the stress exerted upon it from the weight of the stern and the bow on either [Music] side then we made the structural modification of the existing ship we need to ensure that the new modified ship will have the same structural Integrity as the ship had before before the ships of the Renaissance program can be used in service they must undergo a series of sea trials to prove their strength and seaworthiness this whole process from the time the ship is put in the dry dock until we can sended back out again last nine weeks the stretched MSC Opera Cruise liner will take to the Sea as a completely rejuvenated ship ready to take on the fierce competition MSC Cruisers has only 5% of the world's Cruise Market but now can offer bigger ships at a fraction of the cost of building a new one after the enlargement of the ship she will have an added capacity of about 500 passengers so basically the owner of the ship after four enlargement processes is able to Embark as many passengers as if he had a new ship it's a procedure that obviously brings results but the tolerance or margin of error is very small this whole jumbo isation process of the four ships in the series cost €200 million EUR overall this includes the cost of engineering for all four ships and customized work that needs to be done specifically on each ship overall the project costs €200 million Eur [Music] the cruise ship industry may be controversial but the technology behind jumbo isation is truly remarkable the lifting and moving of tens of thousands of metric tons and cutting metal ships that are 50 m tall utilizes the most modern of Technologies Rec cycling ships to make them brand new gives them added capacity to hold hundreds of extra passengers that saves years of work and hundreds of millions of Euros in resources although the tourism business will always need new cruise ships undoubtedly the process of putting these ships under the knife will continue almost certainly there will be more jumbo isation [Music] a red Sun rises over Goose Bay New Finland the world's biggest aircraft is refueling on the tarmac on its way from Berlin to Edmonton with a single piece of cargo a 151 ton heat boiler the only plane capable of lifting such a heavy object is the Antonoff a225 Maria as six turbofan jet engines begin to spin a deafening hum fills the air technicians make their last checks on the massive cargo and Pilots prepare for takeoff the air catches the wings and the giant takes to the skies the a225 is unmatched and unrivaled a heavyweight in the heavy lift [Music] [Applause] sector more than a quarter of a century has passed since the maiden Flight of the a225 since then the legendary cargo aircraft has broken hundreds of World Records and transported some of the largest loads known to man across the globe over a quarter of a century in operation it has moved more than 21,000 tons worth of the widest varieties of caros imaginable from machines and parts to even animals well no larger planes have been created so far that's it I think it's rather expensive to create such a plane and one needs sufficient experience with large planes because it's not an easy task it is part of the testers work but if you are scared this means this is not your profession our planes have such characteristics and opportunities that they can be marketed throughout the world the boundaries of Ukraine and even of the former Soviet Union are too narrow for them Kiev the great City on the dapra river is the capital of Ukraine which stretches from the frontiers of Poland and Hungary to Russia and the Black Sea until Independence in 1991 Ukraine was part first of Russia then of the Soviet Union it was here that after World War II the Soviet government decided to locate one of its prime strategic Industries cargo planes the Russians were the first to experiment long-distance flight using giant planes such as this tupolev and 20 a record-breaking aircraft powered by no less than seven engines the Germans developed a powered glider for heavy transport duties during World War II the meses MIT 323 gigant or giant the world was getting used to Mega planes well before the antinoff design Bureau was founded the anof design Bureau was built around one of Russia's foremost aircraft designers alak Antonov the state owned everything however so when alak Antonov pioneered record-breaking aircraft in the 1960s he continued to be just an aircraft designer his team grew and eventually was able to control production of the aircraft in its own factories Maria started with rusan the a124 plane it was a Plane desided by o covic Antonov a124 rusland and the idea that gave rise to our Dream also belonged to Antonov everything changed as the world was changing in Soviet times we were dealing with Aviation tasks which were financed entirely by the state the planning was centralized the government gave us tasks telling us what to do it provided funds and this is how the planes were constructed during the Cold War years the Antonoff design Bureau came up with solutions to Russia's pressing need to transport troops and weapons long distances at high speed while the USA was producing the Lockheed C130 Hercules Antonoff designed and built the a22 a long-distance transport plane that was the largest of its kind on the market at the time the world was already full of large aircraft American millionaire and pilot Howard Hughes paid for the largest flying boat ever built which still still holds the record for the widest wingspan the Spruce Goose it flew only once Boeing converted its War Productions into building civilian planes and the largest airliner of the time the Boeing 747 the 747 took to the air in 1970 while the US Air Force ordered a number of large planes to transport military equipment Halfway Around the World such as the SE 5 Galaxy there seemed no limit to the size of the plane as long as it had enough power and enough lift in the Wings Over the years anoth adopted the Jet Engine and built faster and larger planes for the Soviet military and tested new Concepts such as the a72 with its over-wing engines that increase lift however when the us a Air Force began deploying its long-distance C5 Galaxy transports Antonov and the Soviet Union realized that in case of War they would have to move just as much military material as far and as fast design of the then largest transport aircraft in the world began the a124 rousan or as NATO knew it the CAC it flew for the first time in December 1982 2 the 1980s were marked by increased rivalry between the USA and Russia in space to NASA's Space Shuttle not only carried out experiments in space but also contributed to the USA's Strategic Defense Initiative a wall of anti-missile technologies that it was claimed took the teeth out of the Soviet threat in an arms race that eventually broke the back of the Soviet economy the Russian space shuttle baptized the Bordan played a key role built in 1988 when Ukraine was still a part of the Soviet Union the a225 aircraft still operates from the original site of the Antonoff Factory and headquarters here outside kth only 25 years ago the city was a major industrial center in the Soviet Union here Soviet Engineers of the Antonoff design Bureau put together the largest military cargo plane of the time the a124 rousan and then were ordered to adapt it to carry the Soviet Union's own space shuttle the buuran after the end of World War I the USA and the Soviet Union VI to break records in space although the Russians were the first to successfully send a satellite then a cosmonaut into space the Americans put a man on the moon and advanced space technology through a Strategic Defense Initiative dubbed Star Wars which included massive funding for NASA's space shuttle program Russia meanwhile used the Space Race to develop its first intercontinental ballistic missiles the Russian space shuttle flew its first and only space flight on the 15th of November 1988 but just as the Americans used a jumbo jet to carry theirs the Soviets too needed a big plane to carry Bordan they asked Antonoff for a solution the result was [Music] this in the in 225 plane called Maria dream we used rusin's wings and the body in fact the larger part of the center body from ran and the chassis but we added some changes there in order to save design time the anof bureau began using their then largest plane as a base a twin tail to make space for the Boran more more engines for more power larger wings for more lift and a massive cargo hold to be able to carry the space shuttles and cery Equipment objects as large as 11 m in diameter and 76 M long can fit inside but with a payload of 250 metric tons it could also carry things on its back which is what it is designed for the a124 rouslan morphed into something quite different but CLE clearly related the or dream the changes were quite significant they included an additional center part of the wing and the additional engines because there were four there and six here and the rear loading hatch was closed in miria in other words these were in fact the main parameters among the unique characteristics of Soviet era aircraft are their robustness sturdy frames and tough undercarriage were a fundamental part of Soviet design strategy to enable aircraft to survive a potential nuclear war and deploy to irregular or semi-prepared airfields like all an off's planes this one was designed to land not only on paved but also on unpaved airfields this explains the number of chassis and respectively the frame is large this all has to be buffered during the impact stress during Landing it has to be distributed and the number of chassis was designed respectively however not only had the aircraft to be able to survive tough Landings but the airfields had to survive the Giants weight plunging onto them too the plane's payload is a whopping 250 metric tons the antinoff 225 has an increased capacity landing gear system with 32 Wheels some of which are steerable it was designed so the aircraft could turn on small runways on each side there are seven pairs of Wheels plus two front landing gears with two wheels each explains gorena Maxim who is in charge of maintenance on the Mia there are seven rows of the main chassis they are special because despite of the big size of this plane the last four rows are rotary racks despite its Dimensions the plane can turn round in a small place with minimum radius when the plane is towed these wheels can turn as well in the tiny cockpit conventional instruments move the control surfaces hydraulically and the throttles for the six massive turbofan engines are still manual the cockpit opens onto a corridor where the crew and technicians can rest during a long Mission Dimitri anono has worked for 22 years at Antonoff since retiring as a military pilot and instructor he has flown nearly every Antonoff designed plane including this one the most massive of them all this aircraft Anon of 225 also Anon of 124 Anon of 7274 anon of 148 58 and another one aircraft it is a unique experience to be at the cockpit controls of this one of a kind plane I'm driving the biggest aircraft in the world just only this one but for normal control it's not not easy but it's not so hard it's um you have uh all control and uh you have big team flying with you uh we are working and have a good team spirit and everybody uh trying to help and working for Captain for uh to uh uh make a safe flight his crew of Pilots Engineers mechanics and technicians must all know the a225 in great detail they must be autonomous so that wherever they land they can troubleshoot any problems on their own nobody knows this aircraft we have to after landing we have to make a loading offloading fueling and maybe if we have some problem with equipment to uh make uh small maintenance or repair something that's why all uh totally usually we are flying 18 20 person on this aircraft it's we have two cabin here just it's pilot cabin and have uh technicians cabin in re side um and enough space to uh feel like home here he has come to know every corner of the cavernous aircraft whose vast spaces are remarkable it's totally we have six beds it's um good good uh for uh who make this decision to prepare for long flight and um uh uh to sleep here to uh take a dinner all also we have small kitchen here uh to uh prepare coffee tea or uh heat catering and here we have big space uh for just it's simply space for um we can walk here and also we are keeping here some spare parts for our navigation equipment for all as system you can see it's equipment navigation equip equipment fire protection system and Al in it's the Finish we can uh proceed from here to top of aircraft actually placing a load inside such a massive aircraft was a huge challenge so designers had an internal crane built inside the cargo hold it's uh almost 44 M long it's uh 6 M wide and four more than 4 M High uh inside you can see um everything what need to load a craft it's uh loading equipment to Crane uh to take uh any kind of cargo we have um uh equipment to fix aircraft uh fix this cargo inside compartment and also some spare parts spare wheel um and uh our for example here it's a tow bar because it's neat sometimes to Towing aircraft on ground here it's door uh to through through this door we can proceed to technicians uh technicians uh uh compartment it's not connecting with pilot cabin but uh it's the same um uh quite enough enough space uh to stay our technicians during the flight remarkably there is a lot of space that goes unused the load Masters are also cater for with ample space for dining sleeping and passing the hours in Flight it's small kitchen here to prepare and uh it's a place where the technician sitting during takeoff and landing and the back side you see 11 BS it's good uh for rest a kneeling undercarriage and a folding nose loading ramp are the heavy lift Hallmarks of the a225 it literally loads and unloads oversized cargo through its nose and knels using retractable nose gear allowing deliveries to drive directly in into the cargo bay several small suburban houses or 80 midsized cars can fit inside the cargo bay there were other major ways the aircraft differed from its smaller brother and from every other aircraft around the world it is the one and only such aircraft in the world dwarfing the Boeing 747 and outli fting the C5 Galaxy transporter and with regard to the four B body almost nothing was changed if we compare a124 to a225 and of course in view of the larger capacity with regard to the length of the center body and the wings the plan's carrying capacity was increased to 250 tons maximum that's all the wingspan of the aircraft was extended from 73 to 88 m and the wing profile was modified too to give it extra lift at the junction with the fuselage and greater wids to house even more fuel an incredible 300,000 kilos worth the extra fuel was needed to power the six iena progress d18 engines built in the Soviet Union now Russia each of these engines provides 51,6 lb of thrust enough to push the aircraft up to a takeoff speed of over 850 kmph the wing profile and thrust gives enough power to get the 280 ton aircraft and all its Fuel and cargo a stunning total of up to 640 tons into the air to a cruising speed of 8800 kmph on the 1st of December 1988 the anof design Bureau finally presented its plane it had not flown yet and many wondered if it ever would the mara lifted off the snowbound Runway and graced the Skies over Kiev with a 74 minute Maiden flight that day it set 106 world records for Aviation these were quite difficult times these were the times before the collapse of the Council for Mutual economic assistance SE and the USSR collapse yet although our firm was working like we are working now everything we were doing was done on the basis of great enthusiasm upon seeing the a225 the first pilot was reported as doubting whether the plane could actually manage to lift off the ground Alexander galeno is a test pilot one of the people tasked with trying out new planes he flew the a225 with the Buran piggyback on the way to Paris that's why back in 1989 when the program wasn't closed we flew Mia in May 1989 to bonor where we put Buran on it and we conducted a series of tests with Buran and then we flew with this Boran back here to gel and then we flew to Paris Le bour and we showed this tandem ban and before the Soviet Union collapsed this system began to fail the state financing was constantly decreasing and we had to think how to go on we had to find ways to earn money in order to build new planes and to continue our Aviation work and this is when this idea was conceived for us to start to provide air transportation services the a225 didn't just Dazzle Paris but was showcased in many countries during the tensions of the Soviet era where before that we exhibited our planes at various air shows in the world in Paris Le held every two years far we were in Singapore we flew to the us all that during the Soviet Union times to show our planes the decline of the Soviet Union was marked by the worst nuclear disaster the world had ever seen the explosion of the second reactor in chobo close to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev the radioactive fallout took many victims and as the scope of the environmental catastrophe became clear the population of the surrounding area was displaced this was the a225 is first humanitarian Mission just before the Soviet Union collapsed well let's say in 1990 to 91 I had to transport cargos at that time Ukrainian diaspora in America collected some medical equipment for the children who suffered the results of the Chernobyl disaster which was needed it was important for them to make it visible and they asked even the president if I'm not mistaken to send them not some rousan but miria specifically so I brought several such shipments from New York and from Philadelphia the collapse of the Soviet Union was an unexpected event and many of the planes that were in the design pipeline would never be realized the Antonoff design Bureau however would manage to keep this giant of the Skies alive the Soviet Union had plans to build several such planes and there is a second plane yet it is difficult to say to which extent it is ready maybe about 40% well it was as it was there were no funds available to complete construction of the second plane and it remained unfinished and plan was to create several such MOS then the Soviet Union collapsed funding ceased and we were not even able to complete the final flying test in order to receive the certificate the Antonoff Airlines Factory near Kiev continued but the a225 was sadly parked for storage it would be muff borned for 7 years before the Antonoff airlift company managed to get it repaired and certified for commercial use and only seven years later funds were found internal financial resources that enabled us to modernize Maria for the commercial needs and complete these approximately 20 trial flights in order to obtain the certificate and then it could transport caros flying all over the world that is why the experience of Antonov both with regard to the use and maintenance is great because it is about not only aerodynamics but also the capacity resource reliability of the supporting system and the Maria has all of it in the year 2000 the plane went through a series of upgrades and repairs and then again made its first public debut in May 2001 at the ceremony of the opening of the new bisp Kiev airport in June Europe got its first look at the sleeping giant that had been modernized to take to the skies once again it was displayed at the Labour air show in France September the 11th 2001 would make aviation history in more than one way in order to demonstrate its potential to the World on the 11th of September 2001 We performed a record cargo lifting of 253 tons for 10,500 M of height yet since this event took place on the 11th of September 2001 another event that happened at that time overshadowed this record the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York would forever overshadow the 124 World Records brok broken by the a225 that day it flew with four Ukrainian tanks a total weight of 253 tons with that heavy cargo it reached a top speed of 763 kmph but very few gave it much attention the September the 11th attacks led to two massive Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in which Antonoff Airlines and a225 would fly missions for the US Army engineers and Special Forces into some of the most dangerous territory in the world in one particularly Dangerous Mission the a225 flew gas turbines Into the Heart of the fighting in Iraq to the baiji power plant our planes are also often used for transportation of military equipment all these operations are carried out in accordance with intergovernmental agreements when diplomatic permits are obtained as required so we transport military equipment from one continent to another as well our planes were very often used during operations in Afghanistan Iraq and before that in the Persian Gulf during the Desert Storm if you remember the 1991-92 war the Desert Storm operation our planes were used to carry bulldozers and other equipment to put out burning oil wells in that W back in Kiev sareno manages the antinoff heavy lift operations and Cargo Carrier requests coming in from all over the world I am an operational Duty attendant we support charter flights for our Rands our experimental planes all planes that fly in antik Antonov receive support in accordance with the orders handlings kerosene is supplied in all airports from which we fly this is our responsibility in Spring 2015 Antonoff Airlines was contracted to transport a boiler from Berlin to Edmonton Canada for use in a new water waste plant the mission required careful planning the unit had to be moved all in one piece no other means of Transport was efficient enough for the [Music] job because these are unique planes and caros are sometimes very difficult up to are the unique caros weighing 186 tons that are transported with Maria for them special time is required to prepare loading equipment for instance some heavy generators or welded frames and so on this is developed by our load planning which is a special office that looks calculates sometimes examines these items and says what they need the cargo weighed 151 tons too heavy for any other transport plane and without the mara could only have been transported by c a lengthy and risky transatlantic Voyage we receive commitment advice from the businesses the transportation contract and we prepare the schedule select the most suitable option that ensures the safest and cheapest transformation for the customer then we reconcile the price and begin to plan and the tasks we submit requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for military transportation and requests are also submitted for civil lines we form the briefing and support the flight performance the a225 is often in demand because of its advantages when it comes to Speed and Performance in proportion it is far more cost effective than any means of transport although it is a massive fuel guzzler that leaves a huge carbon [Music] footprint the time of flight performance does not depend on the type of plane Maria is a unique plane and it began to be used more often recently because the World Market is somewhat inert and it needs time to learn that some cargos were transported in this or in that region this is why recently when the French began to transport cargos from Africa from various difficult airports they saw that Maria was highly efficient because for instance Rand can transport only 60 tons to the nearest Point whereas Maria can transport twice as much 110 This Plane as well as Mia was designed for transportation of very large cargos and they are big planes big planes create big aerodynamic resistance and very powerful engines are necessary to overcome it powerful engines require a lot of fuel that is why the capacity of the fuel tanks in the a124 is 273 tons 273 tons make it possible to fly for many hours more than 24 and in Mia the fuel tanks can hold more than twice the a124 after nearly being retired the second career of the indefatigable a225 had only just begun the a225 flight from leig in German carrying a massive 151 ton boiler to Edmonton in Canada via Goose Bay is underway the crew can relax in the lounge built in the aircraft tail while the pilots take turns of the controls occasionally able to sleep the flight is long but broken up with refueling stops at rikic and goose bay where the Glorious Dawn allows the Antonoff dream to live up to its name the mega airlifter takes off on the last leg of the flight with wings bending under the weight of the 300 tons of fuel that are needed to get it to its destination as the plane flies empty only when it has to for instance after it was unloaded and has to fly to pick up a new load the fuel tanks are almost never full the plane is loaded and it can take only as much fuel as is necessary to fly to the next a Dr despite its enormous size the Maria is more coste effective than most Giants of the air Maria needs 20 tons of fuel during the first hour of its flight and then 18 17 and less the weight of the plane decreases as the fuel is burned and the fuel consumption decreases so big planes need a lot of fuel the Antonoff airlift company has been called upon to transport humanitarian cargos too such as to the 2010 heti earthquake site and to Japan the following year the Maria is perfect for the job as it is a single plane with one cargo and can get the job done in just a few days in 2009 the US Federal Emergency Management agency contracted the a225 to fly 10 massive generators into American Samoa after a tsunami damaged a power plant on board the antinoff are 10 500 kilowatt generators we're about to begin the offload process they'll be brought over to our generator staging area about 2 miles away in the next several days they will be deployed from the generator staging area out onto the island the reason why they're here is because there's not enough generation capability on island with the loss of one of the power plants these generators plus the generators that we already have on island are going to help stabilize the electrical grid throughout the island the reason why this plane was used to uh transport the cargo is we have all 10 generators on one aircraft this is the only aircraft capable of moving this load at once today Antonoff airlines flies a mix of humanitarian Military and Commercial missions last time we transported from England East Midland if I'm not mistaken pressure equipment for production of Jaguar carbodies they relocated their production facilities to Detroit USA we flew to Toronto where we unloaded and then it was near and they transported their equipment further on themselves there were no special technical things the cargo was Heavy almost 180 tons 170 and something was the weight of this pressure equipment for Maria such caros are normal and customary the anoth company based in Kiev Ukraine constructs and Designs aircraft for a niche market transporting the heaviest objects in the world that need to be moved from one place to another as well as having the largest operating plane in the world it has a fet of heavy lift aircraft many of which have the capability of landing on unpaved and uneven air strips in the most far-flung destinations the a178 is one of these planes and a new prototype has just been built and 78 is the plane that can carry approximately 15 to 18 tons of cargo which is very important it can carry various types of cargos and it has a sufficiently big cabin it can also transport Marine containers Mar coners rain pelts the tarmac as the new a178 prepares for its Maiden flight from Kiev on a stormy day in May 2015 it is slowly towed into place by Antonov technicians eager to see their new design take flight as the pilots prepare for takeoff Spectators huddle along the runway braving the bad weather to watch the new prototype lift [Music] off this plane has a rather high speed it can be used in unpaved airfields and today this Niche is vacant which Niche it is for the planes with the carrying capacity between 10 and 11 tons and 20 tons exactly 15 to [Music] 18 after landing the successful First Flight is celebrated by decorated Military Officers government dignitaries and representativ from the commercial Aviation sector it is a rare showing of public Fanfare in this country ripped apart by War a moment for Ukraine to remind the world of one of its standout Industries aircraft engineering the recently unveiled prototype a178 may be part of the next generation of antinoff planes but that doesn't mean mean that the life of the a225 is over to fully understand why Antonov is such a player in heavy lift aircraft it is important to look at the market while there are similar planes with massive heavy lift capabilities built by Boeing like the c17 globe Master 3 and lockheed's C130 these planes are for military not commercial use making Antonov one of the only private sector choices for the transportation of massive cargo there is no other plane that looks quite like it with its nose able to open up for a loading ramp and its kneeling undercarriage the a225 mara is capable of lifting off the ground with a load of 640 metric tons and fitting four small suburban houses in its cargo bay this monster of the Skies has carried the biggest man-made objects in the world and retains its title as the largest airplane in use even after nearly three decades thank God the plane is 25 years old and we have only removable problems I mean it hasn't required any Global Improvement so far and there was no need for them in individual systems everything that is worn or broken and the process of use is replaced in other words this is a normal operation process of course planes are getting old and they need more attention that's all until the aviation industry can develop an aircraft with the same heavy lift capacities the Maria will remain One of a Kind Mia Remains the largest plane or transport P plane the largest plane in general in the world I think no one is building a larger plane so far with regular checkups and mechanical repairs the life expectancy of the a225 could be extended to 50 years in full operation giving this Mighty record-breaking Aviation giant another quarter of a century in the skies the picturesque Lagoon on which the iconic city of Venice was buil has always been this former Maritime Powers Lifeline offering crucial protection ction from the mainland and easy access to the sea but the very Waters that were its historical Ally also became venice's greatest enemy with recurrent flooding across vast tracts of the city in a Marvel of modern Naval engineering and heavy lift technology the Italian government and a Consortium of private Enterprises is building a 7.3 billion Euro water barrier system to safeguard this romantic city of water for future [Music] Generations the streets of Venice flood a phenomenon known here as aqua ala when strong southeasterly winds and a high astronomical tide cause an unusual inflow of water into the Venetian Lagoon exceptional Tides measured here at Puna Deana have occurred more frequently over the last century and risk catastrophically damaging the whole Lagoon and the city itself venetians have long been accustomed to coping with the inconvenience of Aqua ala in 2003 the Italian government began building an ambitious feat of engineering to stop the devastating high tides and save the city a massive surge barrier with 78 floating gates to close off the Lagoon when flooding occurs let's say it's a problem of preservation of the city's Monumental heritage thanks to exchanges with the environmentalist and to the Improvement of the Technologies we have created the most important and probably the greatest environmental initiative in the world you can't just finish part of it and then see if it works we're going to have to wait until it's completely finished Venice is sinking due to a two-fold mix of natural and man-made problems climate change has caused the Adriatic to rise but Venice also suffers from shifting PL tectonics meaning the ground underneath the city is sinking this problem is made worse by The Reckless pumping of ground water for use in petrochemical Plants [Music] nearby we estimate that the sea level has risen by 12 to 13 cm so the sum of rising sea levels and the sinking soil totals about 25 cm so the city of Venice over the course of the last century has sunk approximately 25 cm with respect to the average sea level in 1966 flood levels in the city reached a record 1.94 M roughly 6 ft causing immense damage to the city's building and giving birth to the save Venice movement recognizing the need for a permanent solution City authorities hatched a plan for the separation of the Lagoon from the sea at high tide the project was baptized Moos an acronym that stands for Modo eliment or experimental electromechanic module in 196 Venice flooded dramatically it was the worst flood ever recorded and lasted longer than ever before and so the Italian government decided that Venice had become a national problem and that the city had to be saved from the high waters so from that moment onwards a series of ideas emerged and then projects were launched that are now being concluded after many years to create a system that stops the rising Waters outside the lagon protecting the city from flooding the MOs project was all the more ambitious because of the geography of Venice the Venetian Lagoon was formed about 6,000 years ago as the coastal plain shifted following the last ice age today it stretches 550 Square km from the river CA in the North to the Brenda in the South the city of Venice and and the smaller islands around it all together only account for 8% of the lagoon area while 12% is permanently covered by open water and canals and 80% is mud flats tidal shallows and salt marshes in fact it is one of the Mediterranean basin's largest Wetlands the Lagoon is connected to the Adriatic Sea by three large openings in the natural sand barrier they are the Leo the maloko and the kyja inlets where the tide enters and exits twice a day the sea water enters the inlets and spreads gradually into the Lagoon from the inlets it spreads along the canals it goes faster along the canals but also around the sand banks and the deeper areas and when the tide recedes the sea level goes down and the waters flow out of the Luc inlets once again during and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire the inhabitants of the Venetian coastal plain fled the invading barbarians and came to live on the dozens of islands surrounded by the shallow Lagoon for the protection it afforded over the centuries the Lagoon became a natural base for the great Venetian trading empire the venetians built their City by driving giant Oak poles up to 4 M into the muddy Flats effectively petrifying and preserving them they put Planks on top of these pillars and marble foundations on top of the planks over time the brenta and Sila Rivers deposited in the lagoon blocking the navigation channels and venetians found it necessary to redirect the rivers so they flow directly into the sea instead of into the Lagoon large scale Naval engineering projects including hydraulic pumping and the redirection of rivers have been underway for centuries and have altered the Natural Evolution of the Lagoon creating canals and a number of artificial Islands battling high and low water has been a part of Venetian life for hundreds of years the MOs project however is the most complex and massive Naval engineering project in the city's history the idea that Venice could be protected from the Sea by a series of barriers began to gain Traction in the 1970s other surge barriers in London St Petersburg Russia and reram in the Netherlands showed that the concept could work but actually building it in Italy proved far more complicated than expected like all costly big engineering projects in Italy it encountered strong opposition from environmentalists became vulnerable to corruption and fell into a web of contradictory local and National Powers when the project was first designed 30 years ago it was essentially an engineering project and so we approached the problem in a very let's say hard way today there are two sides to the project the engineering side but also the environmental side construction of the Venetian MOS began in 2003 and The Surge barrier is expected to be complete and fully functional in 2018 the MOs project was tailor made to protect Venice with four major barriers installed at the three main Lagoon inlets that connect the Lagoon to the Adriatic Sea the Venice surge barrier consists of 78 floating steel floodgates arranged into four rows of various sizes widths and lengths they are all independently operated and housed in tanks anchored to the sea floor each gate lies horizontally on the seabed when not in use but when the tides over 10 cm are predicted the barriers rise up on their hinges after the threat passes the air is released and the barriers can sink down again the flotation forces do most of the work think of them as boys which are submerged except for the last part so they are controlled with pressurized air inside the barrier and absorb the force of the wave but the air inside the barrier compensates for it over time the MOs project morph from being a purely engineering project to Encompass also the recovery of Lagoon Wetlands that had been eroded over the centuries and the recovery and restoration of venice's ancient Arsenal which became the control center of the whole project now run by the construction Consortium vetan Nova or new Venice the work we have done over the last few years has been varied land recovery reinforcement of the coastline decontamination protection of polluted areas all this to regenerate and improve the Lagoon and the quality of its water over the course of a 15-year infrastructure project the work has often been bogged down by political quagmires and Kickback scandals one of the most vocal opponents of the MOs project is Luigi Lazo of Le this model this Italian style of managing the bids and sub bids in house that determine who gets the project and then inflating the cost year after year is a direct result of the new Public Works law now we are up to 7 billion EUR with the mosa maybe being completed in 2016 then we'll see how much money it will cost in the future it is one of the most complex and costly Public Works projects in Italian History budget of the construction is approximately 5.5 billion EUR spent over 10 to 15 years for construction in general terms we think maintenance will be 30 to 40 million EUR a year but it is the MOs surge barrier that is at the heart of this massive new effort to protect Venice the heavy lift company foli was called in to move some of the key elements of this massive engineering operation together with construction company mantoani the Venice Water Authority and the privately owned Consortium venetsia Nova after centuries of devastating floods a plan to save Venice from the rising sea and the sinking City finally surfaced each of the 12,000 ton concrete housings had to be moved from from the building site to the Lagoon entrance while the Leo and kyoda barrier housings were built close to their final destination site the casin for the maloko Lagoon entrance were built far from where they were to be laid moving the concrete barrier housings from the building site to their designated place on the sea floor and then installing the mobile barriers was an epic lifting job fjol first had to deliver a lifting structure that would allow the casin built for the maloko entrance to be lowered into the water as the site could not be flooded like the others in order to sink the casin here the Consortium built the largest Synchro lift in the world made up of 26 beams each 57 M long activated by hydraulic winches that could lower the casin underwater so that they could in turn be lifted and transported the Synchro lift is a synchronized elevator that allows us to lower things in water structures that aren't only very large in size but above all extremely heavy and with this lift we can carry kons that weigh up to 22,000 metric tons the massive cross beams of the synchrolift were transported onto a specially designed barge us using self-propelled modular Transporters they are equipped with dozens of wheels that can rotate individually through 90° in order to move massive weights in any direction it took three to carry each of the beams to the barge where they were loaded and taken to the construction site where they were laid side by side and attached to the massive hydraulic jacks that provided the lifting and lowering power f was also contracted to move some of the concrete casin from the Leo tror building site in order to move the massive concrete casin foli Engineers designed a unique tool for the job they designed a catamaran structure with two river barges bound together with cross beams equipped with strand Jacks a special wedge-shaped connection provided the catamaran with the necessary rigidity to perform the massive l the unit was designed and built at the fjali yards at Crona on the Po River under the direction of Lis the port of Crona has been a very important location for the MOs project in that it had the shipyard where the catamaran was pre-assembled the catamaran was constructed out of two existing river barges that were taken out of the water in the port of kona put in the Dr do in order to modify them and utilize them as the camaran in the port of Crona the two cross head beams were constructed that would constitute the catamaran once assembled in the dry dock the whole cataman was disassembled and piece by piece barges and beams were transported to the Leo party for this heavy lift job the catamaran needed a total of 20 strand Jacks able to lift from 45 to 294 tons they do the heavy lifting of the concrete queson four strs were used to SN the qu there were four vertical strand Jacks that let us sink the queson to their correct depth then we used the 12 l50 strands with a capacity of 50 tons for the secondary moing that connected The Quon to the catamaran then another four L300 strand acts with a 300 ton capacity were used for the primary Waring system which allowed the catamaran to move The Quon to its final resting place the single most employed instrument in all the transportation of the 12,000 ton queson of this Mega project was the Strand Jack which uses an electrically activated hydraulic pulley to raise massive weights spread evenly among the dozens of cables lifting the load strand Jacks were famously used to pull the 100,000 tons of the Costa Concordia over 12 hours from a 60° list to the vertical in the 2013 parbuckling operation in July of 2012 one of the massive concrete kasons on which the individual floating barriers were to be attached was ready to be moved once ready the Basin was flooded and the casin started floating but then had to be partially sunk by pumping the air out of the tunnels built inside them two tugboats drag the casin one at a time out of the Basin to a sheltered area though the casin were secure every safety precaution was taken to make sure nothing went wrong special propylene axle lines were fixed to the special transport trailers parked along either side of the shoreline they crawled along with the slowly moving casin the heaviest lift of Italian History had begun once the casin had arrived at the sheltered Bay the tugboats were disconnected and the launching operation began the two tugboats were hooked up to the catamaran the launching operations involved connecting the lifting points of the casin to the catamaran for the so-called secondary moing system the Cason was delivered to foli already floating it had a dry weight of 12,500 tons it was connected to the catamaran Alpha inside the Basin and then connected to the moing system once we reached the exact point of installation the Kon was ballasted until it became very heavy then it was dropped down to the seaf Flor by the hydraulic pulley or strand Jacks Marino once the structure had been connected the catamaran was pushed by tug wots until it arrived over the underwater primary moing system long wires called trench axis lines showed the pathway or line to follow in order to get the concrete structure over the trench carved in the sea floor and reach the precise sinking Point once in position the casin were ballasted and sunk using strand Jacks positioned onto the [Music] catamaran water cushions previously positioned into the seabed were filled gently Tak taking the load of the casin before they reached the bottom of the trench the bags were then deflated allowing the placement of the casin in their final position Engineers used precise 3D computer models to place the casin with millimetric precision and slide one against the other to form a single watertight line even the smallest error could mean disaster for the mosa project however this was just the first stage in the massive move once the casin were lowered the floating barriers had to be attached this was a massive feat of Engineering in 2003 the Italian government began investing billions into a project called MOS a massive barrier to control the tides flowing in and out of Venice from the Adriatic Sea here at Le torti the mosa construction site Rises out of the sea a massive gray wall of concrete but what is underwater and how does it work 20 M Beneath the Sea are a series of massive concrete quom every barrier has its seven housing queson and 21 Gates and two service tunnels one on each flank workers who build and maintain these undersea tunnels take a lift to the bottom of the shaft it is an imposing Labyrinth of metal concrete and cable there are two tunnels one for transport and another a lateral service tunnel in which repairs can be carried out in a hurry if there is a leak watertight rooms along the side of the tunnel host the attachment mechanisms connected through the watertight female housings to the male part of the hinges on the outside of the casin round which the barriers move when compressed air is pumped into them each of the hinge rooms is flanked by a service chamber that allows a diver to enter the hinge room to carry out any emergency repairs if it is flooded the watertight doors need to be checked regularly they must be kept closed at all times each casin was lowered and pulled against the next with millimetric Precision so as to make the whole length of the unders sea tunnel completely watertight the next phase in building the MOS is positioning the mobile barriers one once again the heavy lift company foli was called into play in this hanger in the Meera Port Shipyard south of Venice the massive yellow Floodgate is finally ready to be moved if you think moving a piano is hard imagine this 210 ton steel box the whole process of moving the barrier out to sea would take three full days FJ uses a special heavy lift transport vehicle to slowly roll it out onto the awaiting barge it is a tedious and dangerous process to move such a beast finally at dusk the barge transported at a snail's pace passing by San Marco after Nightfall a brief glimpse of the very City it is destined to protect in order to do the final most delicate thing phase of installation at daylight the crew docks for the [Music] night Dawn Rises over Venice the city of water slowly wakes doing its Daily Business by boat the barge with the great yellow gate heads out to sea to its final resting place after we lowered the seven kons F was also involved in the laying and installation of the floodgates to do this we utilized a scaffolding structure that was constructed of trellis towers and beams connected to the towers the tailor made system included four Tower structure with two cros head beams on top each equipped with four strand Jacks necessary to lower this gigantic 210 ton barrier into the water the support structure was called the fishing beam as it would be used to hook the mobile barrier with 14x14 axle lines the axle lines had to be perfectly constructed when the structures were ready a large barge equipped with four sets of gantries was maneuvered into position and the tower legs connected to a bottom frame were joined to the four Tower sections this was a delicate stage every connection had to be precise to the millimeter workers monitored every parameter using radar adjusting the cables and hydraulic pressure as needed the barge with The Floodgate on board was transported to the Le Inlet and there it was floated under the for Str jaxs mounted on the launching legs the weight of the lifted Floodgate is almost 250 metric tons The Strand Jax allowed the floodgates to be lifted from the barge and lowered onto the Kon with millimetric Precision once the casin had been laid the barges loaded with the barrier were moved directly under the launching structure so the fishing beam could hook the barrier after this the area was cleared from the barge and the barrier was lowered into the water using the Strand Jacks then the mobile barrier was freed from the support structure and fixed to the casin any mstep could send the 200 ton gate to the Bottom of the Sea finally the barge came back to load the launching Gantry system and repeat the whole operation with the the other three barriers this will be done 78 times this is the old Arsenal Ground Zero of the fight to save Venice from sinking once the former Shipyard of the Republic of Venice today it is reclaiming its place as the power center of the city here in the main command and control station of the MOs project engineer Eris RI is in charge of managing the Mosa's reaction to the combination of high tides and adverse winds as we've said earlier the floods are caused by a combination of several events one is the normal tide the other is the southeasterly wind which pushes the water towards the upper Adriatic and so against the Lagoon and lastly there is a standing wave which contributes to Rising waterers He Works hand in hand with the engineers and technicians of the city tide Center to analyze the meterological and tidal data coming into the control room it is here where the crucial decision is made to close or open the 78 Gates that make up the barrier the parameters of the screen that you see on the upper left are the monitors that give us the actual position of every barrier it's position and its state should we need to activate them the central part is dedicated to the weather forecast all the other screens give us information about the Lagoon surroundings the Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea all the data near our area that allows us to have a clear picture of the meteorological situation there are many parameters that determine exactly how many gates are opened where and in what order we can see normal Tides High Tides very high tides and we can react to each individual situation differently today Science and Technology allow for the forecasting of when flooding will happen but there is a deadline we are able to predict several days in advance when a flood tide will occur and to forecast the tides quite accurately but obviously as we get closer to the day of the flood tide our ability to forecast what will happen improves so therefore the real moment to decide whether or not to close the Lagoon with the flood barriers happens about 3 hours before the event because at that time we can determine with total certainty what is about to happen multiple meteorological factors must be calculated the decision was made to use the mosa Only When the tide is at 110 CM above above average or higher under this scenario flooding will still occur using various simulations Venice authorities are able to determine with Precision exactly what impact flood waters of different levels will have on their City Venice is underwater in a very small number of places when the sea Rises 80 cm above the average sea level but the areas subject to this flooding as you can see are the most famous of the City St Mark's Square is the first to flood and Rialto immediately afterwards but when the water level rises to 100 cm 1 m above average St Mark's Square is completely underwater and some smaller streets begin to have some problems at 110 CM the famous rubber boots become a necessity to get around the city at 130 CM City isn't completely flooded but it is certainly completely impacted which means that not only the ground floors and not only the shops are flooded but the store rooms can't be used and people can't get around freely at 140 cm rubber boots are no longer any help and the city becomes extremely difficult to navigate but it is the Epic flood levels like that of 1966 that are the biggest worry basically in that situation Venice is completely underwater once the mosa has been activated the 78 single barriers emerge from the seabed in groups of four effectively creating a wall between the Lagoon and the [Music] Sea a control system keeps the inclination of the gates when closed at approximately 45° constantly adjusting the water inside when it is time to open the barrier the gates are filled with water a process called ballasting they slowly come to rest flush with the sea bed invisible from above massive hinges that weigh 42 tons keep the gates attached to their bases there are small gaps just a few centim wide which allow a little little water through but more importantly allow the gates to move and rotate on their hinges as necessary in October of 2013 the first test was conducted on the MOs and the gates were raised ceremoniously out of the sea the precise data is boring but I can tell you that just by closing half of the inlet you could definitely see a lowering of the water level inside the Lagoon so the MOs works the tide was slow however there is more to the MOs than simply massive engineering over the years despite the scandals attached to it the MOs has contributed to restoring other areas of the Venetian Lagoon but even those efforts are not without controversy in an effort to preserve the uncontaminated natural environment environmental groups often oppose big Civil Works like the Venetian MOS barriers in this case however the ecosystem in question is far from natural sediments carried by the many Inland Rivers originated from the Lagoon itself in ancient times by sinking and consolidating below sea level for the MOs new concrete walls and embankments were built and even a brand new artificial Island was created at the northernmost Leo Inlet to host all the service buildings that control the barriers on one side of the island is a lock system a deep Canal for tankers and cruise ships and on the other side is a shallower canal leading North however not everyone agrees that the Lagoon should be open to large ships at all in Italy there have already been disasters associated with large Naval vessels if one of these ships were to sink in the Lagoon close to Venice it would be catastrophic both for the environment and the residents alike it has made the city slave to the passing of these gigantic ships ships that could very possibly create a legitimate threat of accident accidents like the ones that have unfortunately happened in this country like on the island of Julia with the coast of Concordia and the port of Genoa two extremely grave incidents that have created terrible damage if MO is to be successful it needs to be complemented by projects that will restore the Lagoon's natural structure and build up its natural defenses the part of the project that concerns the Lagoon is one of the most urgent aspects of the work because it is necessary for environmental restoration of the deteriorated areas of the Lagoon but also the shore the moment in which the floodgates prevent the tide Waters from entering the Lagoon from the sea the sea will spread out back along the shore and so we had to reinforce the shore for this reason some of these measures include improving water quality by dredging the canals which improves the water Exchange in the inner Lagoon areas securing runoff from dumps and industrial areas reinforcing the seaw walls surrounding venice's Island and Canal Banks and restoring thousands of K mm of salt marshes polluted sediment was removed from canals but where was it taken there is concern due to some of the corruption scandals surrounding the project that the mud polluted by heavy metals may not have been properly disposed of and what about the 49 km of new beach where did it come from and who will manage it there is a risk here just like in other places from the excavation that brings in soil from the southern part of the Lagoon which is obviously polluted and has been since the 60s by petrol chemicals deposit in the seabed from the Margera Industrial Area another concern is the impact MOS closures might have on the Lagoon water quality it is the sea itself that is responsible for keeping the Lagoon Waters clean since there is no sewage system and black water is released into the Lagoon some worry that closing the Lagoon more frequently could tip this delicate balance it's the job of the Sea and the tides to clean out the Lagoon and they come into the Lagoon and they leave the Lagoon twice a day clean water comes in picks up the waste and takes it back out into the Open Sea experts predict that sea levels could rise between 25 and 50 cm between now and the the end of the century at the same time Venice is sinking 1 millimet annually the more frequent the floods the more often Moos must be used the frequency of the flooding could increase significantly between now and the end of the century so the need to close the mosa barrier could increase from the present five times a year to up to 100 or 150 times a year or even 200 times and closing the barrier so often could have an impact on the quality of the Waters of the Lagoon and the city itself University of Padu professors are proposing a companion solution to the MOs an audacious plan to raise Venice by pumping water into a soil and rock layer beneath the city our proposal is to raise the City by taking sea waterer and building Wells 700 to 800 100 m deep and then pumping the water into the rocks at that depth Venice will rise we have calculated that over 10 years it could rise as much as 25 to 30 cm very gradually critics say the mosa project may go down in history as little more than a concrete icon of corruption and waste if it's unable to protect Venice it doesn't give any guarantees to the city that it won't flood because with a meter or a little over a meter of water washing up here in Pat San Marco the city already has problems in truth this won't stop either way Moos is here to stay while MOS officials say corruption scandals were reprehensible that does not change the fact that MOS is a naval engineering feat of incredible proportions the work in my opinion is a extraordinary seriousness and quality you have to think that for the kons that are 60 by 40 by 28 structures we have tolerances of less than 1 cm in the last year we put down 18 of these kons one every 15 days without airing by 1 second or 1 cimer from our plan the mosa construction is permanent together with all its accessory parts and we have to live with it even if it's unable to respond to climate change which it seems is about to happen we're all waiting in anticipation could be 2016 2017 2018 waiting for the moment when we'll know for sure if it really works so we can test if the project will be able to keep a significant amount of the flooding out after it had been pushed back several times due to the ongoing Public Works investigation underway the Consortium of new Venice has determined a new June 2018 date for completion of the mosa [Music] project the whole project is about 87% constructed it's missing the last three rows of flood that they'll need to install by the end of 2015 although there is some uncertainty about how effectively Mo will protect the city of Venice 7 billion EUR have been spent and the project is currently the best hope the city has of not being swallowed up by the very Lagoon to which it owes its Fame without doubt the mo project has been a Marvel of engineering that has utilized the tough toughest machines and technologies that the maritime construction world has to offer if it does work to save Venice from more frequent devastating floods visitors from all over the world will still have the opportunity to admire this wondrous city of water for decades to [Music] come [Music]
