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Singapore's Marina Bay Sands is one of the world's most complicated construction projects Engineers have to build not one but three skyscrapers that will shoulder a sky Park as big as an aircraft carrier worst case scenario we get stuck they have to devise ingenious Solutions to assemble a 60 M tall Museum of Impractical Dimensions install giant artworks and erect seemingly floating Pavilion for shopping and entertainment if Engineers succeed they will create a virtual City unto [Music] itself [Music] Singapore the Southeast Asian country is smaller than New York City the lack of space forces it to build its largest Leisure and entertainment Hub to date on a small tract of reclaimed waterfront Land the marina base Sands it's not one Mega structure but many serious challenges lie in the array of buildings that form the unique complex 357 story Hotel Towers slope at such great angles they're in danger of buckling under their own weight an even bigger problem is the hotel's roof a 340 M Sky Park spans its length containing Gardens outdoor pools and the world's largest caner lever observation deck but how do you build something as big as an aircraft carrier 200 m in the air in the hotel's Atrium Mammoth works of art have to be somehow incorporated into the [Music] architecture it's challenging centerpiece a 15 ton mass of Steel by a renegade artist from Britain a 60 M tall art science museum is designed for maximum visual impact it will be to Singapore what the opera house is to Sydney only one problem it seems too impractical to construct and a set of dramatic glass encased Pavilions while themselves pose little challenge have to be built in water The Man Behind The Marina Bay project understands the risks but he believes that anything short of astounding will fail Sheldon Adon one of the world's richest men and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corporation what we hope to accomplish is to change the face of uh Singapore tourism so we expect a very successful development that is by far the largest and most expensive single project we've ever undertaken it'll cost about 5 to 5.5 billion US it's a lot of money now I know a billion dollars doesn't bu what it used to but by any measurement it's a lot of money today what they call we call adelon believes his huge investment is safe in the hands of Moshi safy a world-renowned [Music] architect Safi is recognized for his use of dramatic curves and geometric patterns the Marina Bay complex will be his largest and most difficult project yet I think that architecture has to be time therefore what it espouses what it provides needs to be something that has a long life what's unique about Marina Bay is all the pieces coming together you can't think about it as individual buildings you got to think about it as a piece of city it's much more a symphony than it is a [Music] Sonata on the ground Engineers are more concerned about the reality of building saf's vision this is the north retail section area 30-year veteran John DS is in charge of overseeing the entire project there's a way to make an entrance this is my destiny it was now a conspiracy of witches download V today the design is is very very diverse and each component of the project is totally different from the others for a project of this size you'd expect with the plan with the design with the construction you would be expecting somewhere between 6 to 7 years here is basically a three-year turn R the first and most critical construction task is to secure the footprint though this normally straightforward job proves [Music] otherwise since the site was originally allocated for boats the complex sits on 560,000 square m of reclaimed Land part of a decade long plan to revamp Marina Bay a former saltwater estri that's now a freshwater [Music] Reservoir beneath the reclaimed land which is essentially a seabed is a dangerous layer of marine clay sometimes called black tooth paste Marine clay has very poor structural properties if not given complete respect the unstable Marine Clay is potentially [Music] fatal in 2004 singaporeans discovered the lethal consequences firsts hand a routine excavation in an underground tunnel for the mass rapid TR Transit Network causes a collapse creating a gaping hole in the nickel Highway killing four workers the ground conditions in which they were building the nickel Highway were not dissimilar to those in which we are encountering here they had also soft clay they had similar depths of excavation between 20 and 37 m one of the big things that was learned in the nickel Highway collapse was the importance of monitoring movements and the control of quality as the construction proceeds Marine Clay is an old foe of engineer Mike Barton he's defeated it in the past by understanding how it behaves the big problem with Marine Clay is that it is so soft that when you dig out the inside that walls will move and potentially collapse and allow all the surrounding water in the bay into the excavation so before work can begin the unstable building site needs major fortification to combat Marine clay Engineers decide to build giant concrete walls to create stabilizing perimeters for the larger buildings known as diaphragm walls up to 1.5 M thick diaphragm walls are steel reinforced concrete sections pounded 50 m into the ground they form water tide enclosur for men and machines to work Round the [Music] Clock in just one year over 4,000 M of diaphragm walls help produce a rock solid foundation the diaphragm walls that we constructed in a formation which we called a peanut formation which is two circles joined together and a donut formation which is circular is that they are able to withstand very very large forces from the Marine Cay without any movement they encapsulate an area that's bigger than a football pitch that enables us to excavate very quickly and to build structure up very quickly securing the footprint of the Marina Bay project has already taken a year out of John Down's schedule he now faces the difficult task of erecting the Resort's many buildings in a space of Just 2 years just just managing the whole Logistics of that including the construction methodology is very very challenging for us to meet his tight deadline DS chooses the most direct solution he hires 16,500 workers to construct every single building simultaneously it's like leading a small army so organizational Excellence is key we're just on the edge of Singapore and the CBD here so rather than lose the contractors and the work force to go offsite we built our own three-story project office we have all of our contractors our subcontractors here we house our resident site staff we have our project management team we have our construction management team our design management team and the logistics here come lunchtime the monster the workforce creates another massive challenge for Downs he responds by building one of the world's largest sight cens we got 13 14 different food Styles here you can see by my shape and size that I eat here every day I enjoy this food so here you can see the project Bakery it has his own ovens it's set up for for breakfast we cater for sandwiches during the course of the day can I um can I take a sausage roll please so freshly cooked food straight from the oven We Stand by our products the tight schedule also creates problems at the hotel Towers where Engineers are already struggling with a congested sight the important thing to do is to make sure that they come in and deliver the goods straight away and then get out again we don't want too many vehicles on sight at the same time to speed up construction and alleviate traffic congestion Engineers turn to a method that's proven itself countless times in the field in situ concrete casting Hotel walls made on site in the thousands and workers laying the floors are so proficient they produce one floor per 4-day cycle it's an impressive display for a conventional solution but the structure they're attempting is anything but conventional the key ch challenge of building the hotel Towers is its unusual design unlike other skyscrapers part of the towers slope at incredible inclines like a set of collapsing dominoes the towers could Buckle under their own weight if a practical building solution is not found it's a major concern for engineer Craig Glover I've been in the industry for 25 years done a wide range of projects in many different countries but nothing compares to this whatsoever there was nothing we could take reference from across the street on the next highrise or across town this is a new frontier costing a staggering 5.5 billion to build the Marina Bay Sands could be one of the world's most expensive mistakes if Engineers can't solve the tower's problematic [Music] structure engineer VC Tong leads the design team and their solution comes out of left field if you look at the configuration it's not a strict Tower it's with a sloping leg so all this sloping leg actually is you know inducing a very huge external Force onto the structure we cannot build it without any support so so we actually formulate a solution to prop up the slopping edge using a technique that never employed before engineers build large temporary struts made of strong structural steel they prop up the sloping towers as they rise like a suspension bridge High tensile steel tendons also known as tension cables give an added layer of support inside the walls in theory both the struts and the tension cables are temporary and will be removed once giant link trusses connect the towers at the 23rd floor the sheer weight in concrete is enough to topple the towers at level eight if the engineer's calculations are wrong to reduce the chances of failure Glover and his team make a radical [Music] decision instead of removing the temporary tension cables in the tower walls they make them permanent supports I feel good it's in there because it's added strength it's added support we have a twined network here of high strength steel and what we do is we bundle these up so they form a cord with multiple strands inside this cont conduit we place this conduit inside the walls prior to Casting the concrete so what we then do is once the concrete is cast we anchor one end into the concrete we then put a very high strength pneumatic Jack onto the collar and one by one pull these strands through and tension them up what that does is basically pull the building back and hold it in place if these cables were to suddenly break or if they weren't in place we wouldn't be able to control the self weight as we build more and more of the building up so it's a very important part of the actual engineering of the solution to hold the building in place until we can connect it despite the team's quick thinking the true test of their engineering decisions will only happen once the main support struts are removed and the massive link truss is installed link trusses are huge reinforced steel brackets that bind the towers at the 23rd floor once their installation is complete they transfer the sloping Towers weight completely away from its temporary struts once we satisfied that we don't have any stability issues then we can bring the large hydraulic cranes in and member by member start to dismantle the struts got a lot of time so we just got to make sure that these things keep moving it's done it job holding up the building now it's holding up the job as the last pieces of support struts leave the site Glover and his team can finally breathe a sigh of relief the link trusses are holding the building load so far so good it's a lot of theory a lot of calculations but until you really do it and really get it out of the building you never quite know I'm always waiting for the phone to call in the middle of the night that we've got something's gone [Music] wrong not all the structures have ended up according to plan the 60 M High art science museum is facing a major design overhaul planned as a venue for Blockbuster exhibitions on the Arts and Sciences its b-shaped roof doubles as a 3,00 seat Amphitheater unfortunately for engineers eager to start its construction architect Moshi safy isn't happy with its current shape somebody looked at them and said there looks like a bunch of bananas in fact Mr Adon said looks like a bunch of bananas I said well if they look like a bunch of bananas we're not there yet what did the stru it's terrible news for saf's design team especially its principal Jean D there are times that mosha will come in with an idea we think it's quite exciting we'll pursue the idea for weeks or even months he'll come back and say I I want to change the idea and we've already bought into the idea so it's a bit frustrating to rework the unique geometry and dimensions of the art Science Museum Dia and his team turned to Advanced 3D modeling programs it not only makes navigating the Museum's complex geometric patterns easier it shortens the process to a matter of days the model is dynamic and it can be moved by just changing one or two elements mosha could experiment he could make rapid judgments in very short period of time about which way he wanted to take the project this is a process that was impossible to do 10 years ago without the computer this would take years and years and years Nautilus form effectively became to rationalize the new look into a buildable structure architect David Robins splits the museum into spheroid segments C was doing we began to look at using different spheroids to define the different upper and lower surfaces of this building that gave us a very rational way of describing the plan form to our [Music] clients after months of refining the design safy is finally happy with the Sky yester the mathematical Precision that we gave them made them even more beautiful it let some people to say well hand of Welcome others said is that a Lotus and the more ambiguous the associations the closer I thought we were getting to our Target because I think the least exciting buildings are those which have overt symbolic Association armed with a new design Engineers Begin work on the Museum's 60 M High superstructure a staggering 5,600 steel elements weighing some 5,200 tons are prefabricated to exact specifications they are then trucked onto site and assembled it's like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle each element has to be installed with pinpoint accuracy if it's even a few millimet off Engineers will have to start from [Music] scratch Engineers of the massive atrium at the base of the towers are facing an equally tough construction process safy has come up with a challenging design he wants to inject art into the atrium's architecture so that visitors will feel like they're walking through a grand Gothic cathedral in medieval times if you think of a Gothic Cathedral there's the architecture there's the stained glass windows there's the sculptures on the Pinnacles you cannot draw a line and say art and architecture art and architecture are wersing singular experiences and I think what we try to do here is come back to this integrative mode to create the centerpiece of his vision for the atrium safy commissions renowned British sculptor Anthony gorley famous for his unusual approach to Art gorle is the brains behind the Angel of the North sculpture in northern England what he's about to attempt is more of a construction challenge than an artistic one a cloudlike sculpture some 40 m long made up of 15 Tons of high-grade stainless steel hung 12 stories above the atrium the Angel of the North is in a way making a very traditional public sculpture because it's isolated in space at the edge of a valley you can see it for miles and miles is very much about occupying space this is about activating space you can't see it for miles and miles you have to be in the space with it it's each viewer every person coming out of their hotel room will confront this big chaos thing and have to find their place in it I think that's a exciting exciting thing called Drift gorley steel sculpture is so huge and so complex that it can't be sculpted using traditional methods gourley's team has to create state-of-the-art 3D computer programs that translate his ideas into buildable plans but just as they're about to begin Construction a bombshell drops September 2008 a global financial crisis wrecks havoc on markets the flow of the hundreds of millions of dollars that keep the Marina Bay project going every month suddenly stops for engineer Matthew PRI it's a massive blow I feel devastated couldn't be worse probably the worst day of my life professionally there's no more money coming through so unless we put some funding in place or there's something we're going to have to shut the jobs down there's a tough decision to be made and we don't know what we're going to do just at this point in time with the future of the multi-billion dollar project plunged into doubt All Eyes turned to The Man Behind it sh in Adon the next move of one of the world's richest men will determine the fate of the mega construction site the 2008 Global Financial meltdown is a haunting echo of the 199s Asian crisis back then progress on shanghai's World Financial Center came to a complete halt for 5 years for Adon that's simply not an option for the high-profile Marina Bay Resort his vision of changing the face of Singapore tourism is at stake and so are billions of dollars of investment from his Las Vegas Sands Corporation he prefers finding a stop Gap solution to weather the storm who are history there has never been a trend that went straight up nor a trend that went straight down so it goes up and down it's only it's only a matter of time when things will [Music] recover in a bold move Adon pledges his vast personal wealth to the completion of the project effectively ending any speculation of failure a massive sense of relief in the company I mean everyone pleasantly surprised how quickly we've got through this and the fact we could hold it together and get it going again so Euphoria is probably the best best way to describe [Music] it with the crisis averted construction on the 357 story Hotel Towers the casino theaters and Convention Center resumes at PACE everywhere you turn steel is being installed it's vital reinforcement for every concrete structure on the 15.5 hectare site for one project at the tower's Atrium steel is more than just reinforcement to construct the 15 ton drift sculpture by British Artist Anthony Gormley engineers had to First laboriously prefabricate it into over 70 segments the segments are then welded into eight slices and will ultimately form the sculpture it's a tricky operation but Engineers are able to complete it swiftly due to a system of codes and numbers that enable them to quickly identify what goes where once all eight slices of drift are fully assembled it's lifted up into position by a temporary lifting frame a massive box truss on the atrium ceiling then takes over the load in theory the Box truss will support the weight of the lifting frame as it's being lowered down it will be a hard stopping moment this especially for engineer Graham Stevenson the lifting frame is about 9 and 1/2 tons so when it picks up and gets some momentum there's a potential that it just wants to flick over and and rotate through its full 90° and we won't have it under [Music] control Stevenson solution four powerful automated hoisting drums located at the Four Corners of the frame they allow workers to control the strength and speed of the operation with high tensile steel cables a spotter at the top determines the pace of the procedure and Marshal the team with their preparations complete it's time to face the Moment of Truth sculptor Anthony Gormley is as anxious as any of the team number three number [Applause] three the entire operation is estimated to take up to 10 hours to complete as soon as the frame is in motion there's no turning back Midway through the lift Stevenson receives reports of a potential problem 22 Story number seven temporary cable scaffolding touching the cable you got the temporary cable touching to the transverse but is it just the end of a tube so you can just cut the tube yeah problem solved but what was previously an estimated 10hour procedure now turns out to be a 24hour marathon lift at 6:00 a.m. the following morning they complete the job absolutely fantastic the G is now finally in its final position so really an end of a long and exhausting day and big thanks to everybody but it's finally done while the drift settles into its new home at the hotel Atrium elsewhere attention is focused on one of the Project's key features the crystal Pavilions the two glass encased buildings by the prominade are set to be the Resort's premier shopping and entertainment [Music] complexes but before before Engineers can make them a reality they have to secure their footprint and already a major obstacle threatens to sink their objective the crystal Pavilions are situated within the confines of Marina Bay so to found it Engineers have to find a way to build in 6 M of water the responsibility of tackling the problem falls on the shoulders of engineer Kurt fella I'm from Sydney the underlying foundation in Sydney is is sandstone it's it's rock all you need to do is just dust off the surface and you can build skyscrapers on it here is very different all the structures have to be heavily [Music] founded to keep water out of the construction site only one solution seems viable for Bella and his team a waterproof steel structure called a coffer Dam this temporary formation surrounds the work site with a circle of Steel sheet piles creating an impenetrable shield that locks out the water keeping the workers safe Within for the job they R in a 12ton vibro hammer it punches the Sheep piles deep into the Earth making the coffa dam Rock Solid and resistant to movement with the Coffer Dam secured Engineers deploy powerful diesel pumps and run them 24 hours a day ejecting any water that remains within the walls this last stem comes with inherent dangers the force of the water outside creates what Engineers call hydrostatic pressure in theory it's powerful enough to force water through any gaps in the cofa dam it's something that Val prays will not happen there's a bit of hesitancy and concern because we've got to build this building in the middle of Marina Bay everybody can see what we're doing so if it leaks it's a problem if it fails If It Moves if it collapses it'll be an absolute catastrophe after a day of pumping Val's worst fear comes true parts of the Coffer Dam are leaking [Music] to rectify the problem Valor orders a team of eight divers into the water on 10hour shifts their mission find out where the water is being forced in and plug them shut with epoxy resin ansen Lee is an 8-year diving veteran the toughest part of my job is the environment the vity is poor here is totally zero I canot see anything here below I stop that by fuing feel the suction and then feel out the thing you have to overcome all the fear that you can't see under the water but okay I feel proud to be one of this team to build this thing out after two weeks of hard work by divers and the pump crew the job is finally complete Kurt Val can also breathe easy every job is different every job has its challenges you plan and prepare you try and identify your risks in advance and you try and come up with contingency plans and that's what's really enjoyable for my perspective that's what gets me out of bed in the morning [Music] after 2 years of battling the elements and overcoming difficult construction Milestones the three sloping towers of Marina Bay Sands can finally celebrate their topping off ceremony and move on to the next phase but a destructive force of nature threatens to throw a spanner in the works with climate change predicted to affect the pattern of Southeast Asia's typhoons Singapore May one day experience the destructive tropical storms plaguing its northern Neighbors in the Philippines and Taiwan when that happens typhoon force winds could spell disaster for the hotel Towers especially the 340 M Sky Park sitting on top of it the force of the wind can make both buildings sway dangerously causing irreparable damage to the structures the sky Park offering 360° views of Singapore the Visionary design will have enough surface area to Park 4 and a half Airbus a380s but when architect Moshi safy first moted it it stemmed from a purely functional need luxury hotels as we think of them always have lots of open space around them Gardens at least in the kind of tradition but we didn't have much space left at that point I figured well if we cut out of a Extrusion of foam the kind of slab that goes over those three towers and we placed it there and we said what do we have here my God that's some par and so that's where the idea was born that's what makes us a resort this is not a critical Direction saf's revolutionary idea scores points for Ingenuity it's good here but it clearly isn't what nature intended typhoon force winds threaten to rock the towers and its skyark causing unimaginable damage if Engineers are to make the building a reality they'll need a rock solid solution engineer Tony mcke has little time to make things happen at the moment we're running a couple of weeks behind what we'd originally planned um we're not entirely happy about it but at the end of the day we've got to do this safe and we've got to do it properly know you're safe close to to fight the enemy mck knows he has to First understand the enemy he hires leading us wind Engineers CPP to carry out extensive testing on the towers and Sky Park their mission find out how Singapore's potential wind forces affect the buildings we turn that upside down wind engineer Roy Denon oversees the process at their state-of-the-art wind tunnel in Fort Collins Colorado the thing that makes this really special is the fact that we have this Sky Park running across the top linking all the tows together so whereas normally with a normal Tower we'd measure the loads on the tower in isolation with this one what we're needing to do is to measure the loads on all three of the towers at exactly the same time so that way we can know how the towers are going to move relative to each other so we can make sure that they're not going to put excessive strains or movements into the sky partk during the tests a scale model of the Marina Bay Towers is blasted with 40 kmh winds to simulate faster typhoon winds in reality over a th000 pressure measuring instruments inside the model register how the winds affect the buildings at the end of the tests Engineers confirm that the three towers can deform by some 200 mm during the fiercest storm Engineers quickly figure out a solution movement [Music] joints inspired by Bridge engineering philosophy movement joints are essentially gaps located between the concrete Towers the huge gaps allow for movements of up to 250 mm Aluminum and Stainless Steel plates act as sliding components they can move back and forward over each other a little bit like you'd see in a um a flexible bus where you have that articulation happening in the middle it's it's a similar concept to that to accommodate the differing movements of the three towers Engineers install multidirectional steel bearings below the sky Park the solution scores major points with Tony mcke only one problem it won't work with a rigid structure containing 1.5 million L of water any movement in the joints could fracture the sky Park swimming pool endangering lives and property [Music] below with the help of us pool builders natare mck quickly develops a solution but it's completely unproven a secondary system of movement joints built into the pool itself the plan to split the pool into three smaller 50 m units steel top hats then conceal the gaps huge basins catch any runoff pushed up by the moving pools mcke knows he only has one chance at making this work so he commissions a trial by water what we've got here is the side of the swimming pool which replicates the movement that we're going to get between the towers and what the N guys have come up with here is a simple track system which can be pushed back and forward by a forklift and that replicates the full range of motion that we have on the swimming pools which can be 0 to 250 mm either way it takes Engineers weeks of testing before they're completely satisfied armed with the final results mcke can now safely begin construction of the sky [Music] Park consisting of some 10,000 tons of steel the sky Park is as big as an aircraft carrier the most practical way for engineers to construct it is to break it into four 14 segments on the ground before assembling it at the top of the [Music] towers there's no room for miscalculation at 200 m in the air each segment is carefully prefabricated and tested by Steel Specialists young man and then truck to the site independently from the very beginning mck and his team anticipate that their biggest challenge will be lifting the two largest segments of the sky Park the Box girders measuring 80 M long their combined weight is a staggering 1,400 tons how do we feel uh a little bit of apprehension you know it's it's a significant lift that hasn't been done before if something goes wrong it could be really significant for us to reduce risks mcke turns once again to proven Bridge Building Technology in a process known as strand jacking giant temporary lifting gantries made of strong structural steel will use powerful hydraulic jacks to lift the Box girders up to the top of the towers before sliding them into place it will be the longest and largest lift of its kind in the world and mcke needs the best in the business he puts a Pioneer in the field in [Music] charge Swiss French company vsl engineer Eddie King and his team have successfully raised Bridges Stadium roofs and even teris Wheels the toughest work of my work is you have to plan it everything very precisely because everything uh to set up in millimeters so we have to lift up and slide it in and position it in 5 or 10 mm accuracies we don't do properly or don't do safely yeah what the biggest Hazard is the thing can fall down to the ground other factors further complic at the lifting process due to an increasingly tight schedule the team is forced to conduct the lift during Singapore's annual monsoon season it's almost impossible to predict when a tropical storm will hit when it does the accompanying lightning strikes can endanger lives and because the whole operation takes place Meers from a jam-packed highway curious onlookers will be able to see any mistakes the engineers make it's a potential public relations nightmare worst case scenario we get stuck and then we've got to figure out how to release it how to continue lifting cuz basically once we get going we keep going okay I okay okay now I stop [Music] during an estimated 16-hour lift the Box girders will move at a cautious 14 mph Eddie King and his team constantly check their weather gauges for any incoming storms the hydraulic jacks are also inspected regularly for overheating no one wants the operation to stall in midair day1 288 other one despite the team's best efforts Mother Nature catches them by surprise okay guys rain is coming it's better we we stop here an approaching downpour threatens to grow into a lightning storm we are at 200 m above and surrounding building is quite far away so there's a chance of the lightning striking on the high point like this so we got to stop and wait until the weather getting better before we continue our LIF mck's worst fear comes true if the girders remain stuck at Midway for too long he will have to order them down okay after a tense 3 hours the lightning threat passes and the operation cranks back to life by the time the Box SK is slide into position it's past midnight everything went quite smooth today so we hope tomorrow we can do the same smoothly bringing in andad transfer to the permanent police with the Lessons Learned From The Box Gerta lift the rest of the segments go up smoothly as the final piece Rises into place Singapore is already marveling at the team effort behind one of the world's most ambitious building [Music] projects in just 3 years Engineers overcame seemingly impossible construction challenges defeated Marine clay engineered and genius design Solutions and survived the most debilitating financial crisis since the 19 30s as the finishing touches are put on the resort the stage is set for an opening party Singapore style those involved reflect on the project that has already far surpassed their expectation it's a bit kind of overwhelming you know I'm in the process of disconnecting the umbilical cords very not easy for an architect this type of project probably only comes around every 25 years or so so it's it's been a lot of hard work um extremely challenging I really can't imagine I couldn't list the number of challenges we've overcome along the way to get to today everybody is saying this is kind of a miracal I you know never seen anything like it uh and it's rewarding it's nice the Marina Bay Sand Singapore proof that with Visionary design and Engineering knowhow Mega structures can still defy the odds and fulfill the wildest [Music] dreams

Channel: Spark

Views: 956,782

Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, Learning, How To, education, documentary, factual, mind blown, construction, building, full documentary, space documentary, bbc documentary, Science documentary

Id: V_HYOpcknjU

Length: 52min 21sec (3141 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 01 2023