this will be the world's longest cross Sea Bridge and we'll take about 6 years to complete four 4,000 ships and 1,800 planes pass this construction site every day 500,000 tons of steel and 2.3 million tons of reinforced concrete will be used the tunnel will be the world's longest immersed tube the world's largest vibrating Hammer will also be used to build two artificial Islands which must be impervious to typhoons and earthquakes and serve to prevent envir environmental pollution this project has been a dream for generations and this is just the [Music] beginning Hong Kong with an area of 1,100 square km and a population of over 7 million has become Asia's most prosperous area thanks to international finance foreign trade and tourism JW High originally a fishing Village is considered China's most livable coastal city maau has a population of 400,000 in an area of only 21 Square km making it one of the most densely populated areas in the [Music] world now Chinese Engineers plan to link the three cities completion of the bridge will provide Hong Kong with more room for growth while JW high will get a boost from Hong Kong's economy and maau will be able to expand its tourism market so far this is just a dream the structure of the seabed is very complicated the natural environment harsh and the Gap almost prohibitively wide bridging this span of over 30 km appears to be an impossible Mega project Fang Ming Shan Bridge engineer has headed a team devoted to building another huge project for the past 10 years the hung Joo Bay Bridge this experience has prepared him to come to duai for an even more challenging project the Hong Kong jeim M cowbridge [Music] project [Music] [Music] connecting Hong Kong with maau and jwai via the lingding SE will require solving many problems it would be easy to Simply copy the hungo Bay Bridge but conditions here are very different this is the world's most important sea trade route with over 4,000 Ships coming through daily the complex seabed will further complicate the project moreover the area is often hit by typhoons making it a risky project as well finally the engineers are restricted by a certain rate I.E 10% the weak current in the lingding sea deposits tons of silt every year the bridge peers would tend to collect silt if their resistance to the water exceeds 10% this would eventually block the sea route and transform the lingding sea into an aluvial plane the engineers must ensure this doesn't happen first of all shipping must not be interrupted there is a crucial deep water Channel close to Hong Kong that is the only channel that can handle large freers construction of this bridge could threaten this [Music] channel uh in order to accommodate a 300,000 ton ship the bridge would have to be 18 M high with Bridge towers as high as 200 m it would certainly be scary driving across such a high bridge besides which the nearby Hong Kong airport does not allow any structure over 88 M high in its flight path since this deep water Channel cannot be blocked by a mega Bridge the designers looked for other Solutions otherwise project would have to be shelved before the project was sh for good though designers came up with the crazy and bold proposal to dig an underwater tunnel instead in 2009 the Chinese government approved the most imaginative plan ever attempted for spanning a body of water in Chinese history it calls for a 6.7 km deep water t tunnel and a 22.9 km Bridge it would be the largest longest and most complicated such project ever built in China completion of the project would shorten the travel time from du high or maau to Hong Kong from 4 hours to just half an hour Chinese Engineers have already built six cross sea Bridges but they have never before built such a huge undersea tunnel The Bridge Project would be an unprecedented challenge Engineers faced a problem soon after construction began an island was required to connect the bridge in the undersea tunnel but there was no suitable candidate the only solution was to build an artificial Island the detailed sea floor survey however indicates that building such an island would be an unimaginably huge project uh more than eight million cubic M of silt equivalent to three Egyptian Pyramids would need to be removed from the site dumping it elsewhere in the ocean would create an unacceptable level of pollution the plan calls for completing the island within a year so the engineers needed to quickly come up with a better idea the engineers Drew up a clever plan to use steel cylinders to make a levy around the island site the steel cylinders would be secured on the seabed in a circle and then the circle would be filled with Earth to form an artificial Island this approach also eliminates the need to remove huge amounts of silt making it far better for the environment a total of 120 huge steel cylinders will be used to form an artificial Island at each end of the tunnel the diameter of each cylinder is 22.5 M roughly the size of a basketball court at the height of a 28 story building a 55 M cylinder weighs up to 550 tons that's as much as an Airbus A380 the first problem was finally solved but now the design team must overcome the second problem how to dig an undersea tunnel in the 6.7 km long deep water channel the engineers first considered the proven Shield [Music] technique the equipment is available to do the job but it would increase the water flow resistance above the 10% limit ruling out this time- tested [Music] technique an island 1 km long would be unaccepted cable the only other option is an immersed tunnel which requires first digging a trench on the seabed the preab tunnel sections are then dropped into the trench and assembled underwater this type of tunnel would not require such long artificial Islands though the smaller Islands will reduce the impact on the ocean environment the technology required will present a greater [Music] challenge this will be the most challenging undersea tunnel project in the world each section is 180 M long 33 M wide and 11 M High each consists of the lanes for both directions of a three-lane highway plus a lane on each side for equipment and workers and each section weighs 76,000 tons that's equivalent to the weight of an aircraft carrier the sections will be dropped into the trench one by one starting from the Western Island where they will then be removed remotely joined making the huge reinforced concrete sections proves to be more difficult than the engineers ever imagined the engineers finally solved the problem by making eight smaller units for each section and then joining them together this resolved the first big hurdle in the project the engineers now turn their attention to making the huge steel cylinders needed to form the artificial Islands which will also be a first for China Shanghai is the largest Chinese Eastern coastal city and China's largest International Financial Center Chang Shing Island 30 km from the city center is China's largest Shipyard the shipyard uses many thousands of of tons of steel each day to produce huge ships for clients from all over the world the steel cylinders used for the Hong Kong du High maau Bridge Project are manufactured here as well work on the cylinders continues night and day so that the islands can be formed as soon as possible Joe commutes between his office and shipyard every day the team has the arduous task of producing 120 steel cylinders within 8 months the cylinders are too large to make in one piece so an alternate method must be found each cylinder could be made of 72 pieces but the more pieces there are the easier it is to have problems when they are assembled the error deviation must be controlled within plus orus 3 cm for a structure as tall as an 18 story building the team decides instead to First make a steel form work in which to form the shape of the steel cylinder which reduces the error to a controllable level the 12,960 pieces of Steel weighing a total of 60,000 tons are enough to build eight Eiffel Towers in 8 months the steel will become 120 huge steel cylinders 1,300 km from Shanghai is densely populated Hong Kong the trade and Financial Center of Asia great efforts have to be taken to increase any single point of GDP the bridge will strengthen economic ties in the region and greatly expand opportunities for development in Hong Kong Mr Lee realizes what this project will mean to Hong Kong an experience 10 years ago brought him to the design team Hong Kong relies on its port for foreign trade increased business opportunities in the Chinese Mainland have created the need for more efficient transportation in the region shinen Port is the obvious choice for a bridge to the mainland Hong Kong needs to pursue new opportunities in China's western region for continued economic growth Mr Lee and his team accepted this challenge in the hopes that the project will promote Hong Kong's development the scale of the project is unprecedented the 6.7 km long undersea tunnel will require 330,000 tons of steel and 2 million tons of concrete that's enough for eight skyscrapers all the sections need to be finished in 1 and 1/2 years to keep the project on schedule this requirement forces Engineers to find a way to shorten the manufacturing [Music] time the team looked for help from a worldclass German formwork maker that was involved in building Europe's longest undersea tunnel called the Oren Bridge the team hopes the experience of the German Engineers can be applied to this project and the different to the tunnel from uh Aron is the profiles was smaller as here we work with more bigger profiles and the important thing is we follow exactly the measurements from the drawing otherwise we have on assembling on the chop site a lot of problems you need this working platform that that you can work here aform a framework plan that will allow rapid assembly will greatly accelerate the project the increase in efficiency would ensure that the project stays on schedule the cost of the equipment however would put the project way over budget the Chinese Engineers have to accept the challenge of producing the most sophisticated automatic framework system in the world the framework will require 3,000 tons of steel and must be produced in just a few months this is a huge challenge for a team with no experience in this area [Music] 6 months later the last of the steel framework is almost finished the workers must finish final assembly and testing in under 3 days when the framework will be disassembled and loaded on ships for transport to the plant 1,600 km away that is installing the immersed [Music] tunnel on Guan Island 1,600 km away over 3,000 workers are busy preparing for the arrival of the framework they need to build a super Factory from scratch in just 100 days the Factory's only mission is to produce 33 sections for the world's longest undersea tunnel 3 million cubic M of earth needs to be removed from an area equivalent to 10 football fields the factory will produce two sections a month each weighing 76,000 tons in the coastal city of dalan 1,990 KM away An important series of Trials is underway the results will help Engineers determine how to successfully install the 33 section the trials will simulate how the ocean currents might impact the transportation and installation of the sections the resulting data should tell Engineers the size of Steel cable needed to safely drag the 76,000 ton section into place if the trial does not yield accurate data and a caed brakes during the actual operation an extremely expensive section would sink to the bottom of the ocean and become worthless there could even be casualties The Wave Maker simulates heavy waves striking the model of a section the trial which take over 6 months to complete help the engineers determine the best way to safely move the huge sections into place maau is the most densely populated city in the world the city's single industry model is stifling its development in this era of economic globalization City officials are actively looking for new development directions to attract more visitors and partners the success of this project is crucial for the city's development mus hang is a tour guide with more than 10 years experience who is looking forward to the increase in tourists that completion of this project will [Music] bring [Music] [Music] for Miss Lee also wants to become a tour guide when she graduates from my tourism School the new bridge may very well help expand her career [Music] [Music] opportunities [Music] [Music] Miss Lee knows a lot about maau that not everyone knows she wants everyone to know about macau's [Music] culture musang is sure that tourism is the key to macau's Future and that the new bridge will attract more young people to the tourist industry the future is very bright for [Music] maau [Music] typhoons and huge waves in the lingding sea will always pose a threat to the bridge but there is also an invisible and greater threat to the project a group of chemicals known as chlorates [Music] for chlorates will be an extremely great threat to this bridge with a design life of 120 years chai and his team must find an effective way to reduce this threat [Music] for the data from the 20-year test yielded an effective method for dealing with the chlorate problem a conrete that is highly resistant to chlorate [Music] penetration the 22 km Bridge will require 500,000 tons of steel a world record though all steel bridges are much lighter than traditional concrete Bridges they do not hold up as well in an earthquake Shia and his team have to figure out the best way to protect this Steel Bridge against Earthquakes the engineers turned their attention to one of the latest materials to be developed for Shear's team is now carrying out trials to determine the best shock absorbing system for the bridge before actual construction on the project starts there will actually be three Bridges across the lingding sea which is traversed by over 4,000 ships a [Music] day the design of the bridges is now in the final stage there has never been a bridge like this that crossed three airlanes so close to an International Airport the dujo bridge will be only a few kilometers from maau airport and thereby poses the greatest risk since planes will fly over the bridge less than a minute after takeoff normally the hoisting equipment would be much taller than the bridge Towers but Aviation officials do not allow any structure taller than 122 M and the design calls for the bridge Towers alone to be 120 M tall know I was wondering was a new and creative method was developed to erect the towers the cable support Towers will be assembled ahead of time and pulled into place horizontally with cables and then pulled up into the upright position the new solution seems satisfactory but the operation may still have to deal with strong [Music] winds typhoons are common here and there are around 200 days of strong winds a year steel girders tend to rhythmically swing in the wind if their swinging frequencies are the same resonance will occur and the consequences could be disastrous Professor Joe is advising his students as they carry out tests at tongji University in Shanghai they are using a wind tunnel to resolve the resonance problem for it is a key to address the vortex issue and the phenomenon must [Music] disappear this 30 km wide sea channel is the busiest in the world ensuring that the normal traffic of 4,000 plus ships plus the ships involved in the project can Traverse the construction area will prove a huge challenge once construction actually starts engineers work with the Marine Traffic police to redraw the shipping channels it is the largest rerouting ever attempted in China Guang Joo Maritime VTS Monitoring Center is closely monitoring all ships in the area to ensure the safety of the project Shanghai Juna is in the final stage of manufacturing the steel cylinders an actual project construction will soon [Music] [Music] begin [Music] transporting the cylinders to the construction site 1,600 km away would be an arduous task five people have to work work 10 hours straight loading eight of the steel cylinders onto the ship it's a challenge of both strength and endurance one 70,000 T freighter can only carry eight cylinders at a time it seems as though it should be easy for such a big ship to carry these 4,000 ton cylinders but they are 45 M tall and stand directly in the Captain's line of sight the highly experienced Captain has never before encountered a challenge like this for the plant making the tunnel sections in Guan Island 1,600 km away will soon be finishing its task of making the huge steel framewor it took only 6 months to complete the factory one month ahead of schedule for the last piece of framework is being lifted into place assisted by a crane four workers are joining the piece of framework weighing over 10 tons to the rest of the framework in another month work on the first section of the tunnel will start setting another new world [Music] record ship janua is approaching du High it took only 20 years to developed from a small fishing Village into a city with a population of 1.5 million the new Hong Kong Jim maau bridge will make it easier for the city to participate in international trade and economic Affairs as another important city on the West Bank of the Pearl [Music] River Mr Jung moved to J High 20 years ago soon after the country instituted the reform and opening up policy he has witnessed the changes in duw high over the [Music] years [Music] Mr Jung believes that imagination is the city's future he is eagerly awaiting completion of the bridge which would make jwai even [Music] better the Freer is carrying the eight steel cylinders to the sight of the artificial Islands in duwai a tropical storm is gaining strength south of the Philippines so time is of the [Music] essence thousands of eyes are watching the ship ship and its gargantuan cargo which will soon become an important part of the East artificial Island accurately placing the huge steel cylinders on the seabed within plus or minus 2 cm is an extremely challenging task Mr Chun a crane operator is the only one qualified to operate the world's largest eight Direction vibrating Hammer which is specifically designed for creating artificial Islands it can easily lift objects weighing 1,600 [Music] tons the 550 T Steel cylinder is slowly lifted and moved toward the designated spot but nobody at the site knows it's a exact position data transmitted from a GPS satellite 20,000 km above is used to accurately pinpoint the location the gnss base station has been built to ensure the accuracy of the location the 550 ton steel cylinder is now slowly sinking on its way to the seabed 37 M below the operation is going well until the hammer stops when the steel cylinder hits a 5 m thick layer of very hard material [Music] Chun gradually increases the Hammer's output power in order to avoid overloading the hammer and breaking [Music] it meanwhile nesat the most powerful typhoon of the year is rapidly heading towards the South China Sea project Command Center promptly begins making emergency preparations in case the typhoon reaches the construction site it's a critical moment for the placement of the tunnel sections Chun is engaged in a battle with the seabed using the largest vibrating hammer and any mishap could spell disaster a task scheduled for 30 minutes has already taken nearly 2 hours and the wind is now whipping up the waves it's a tough task but if the first cylinder can be successfully positioned it will be a good start to build the island typhoon is approaching and All Ships have been ordered by Maritime officials to seek Safe [Music] Harbor things finally start going more smoothly at the site of the East Island the cylinder begins to sink faster indicating that it has passed through the hard layer 10 minutes later the cylinder has reached the designated depth workers immediately examined the hammer for signs of damage but it appears to be all [Music] right all the ships have found Safe Harbor phase one of construction at the East Island smoothly ends prior to the arrival of nesat following 28 years of operation Chinese Engineers have finally begun to construct this world's longest cross Sea Bridge over the busiest sea area in the world they have made large steel cylinders to form two artificial Islands produced 33 tunnel sections each as large as an aircraft carrier for the world's longest undersea tunnel they build the world's longest Steel Bridge in spite of the complex seabed and harsh natural conditions but it's just a beginning and the project is far from over in the upcoming 4 years there will be more limits to challenge and more World Records to break in 4 years Hong Kong will be able to Quicken its developing Pace while the young people in maau will have greater expectations in Du High meanwhile those Creative Kids will grow up as well facing a more extensive World by then the Hong Kong J High maau Bridge tell more stories of Chinese Engineers as to how they have challenged new limits and finished the new Mega [Music] project Beijing is home to many of the world's architectural wonders [Music] the Chinese capital is constantly changing and amazing the world with its rapid economic development that changes the appearance of the city from day to day but growing traffic congestion is a huge problem construction of a record-breaking City rail system is now underway when completed it will have 31 lines 560 stations and 1,000 km of elevated ground level and underground tracks this Mega project will creates the world's largest urban Well Network and attracts the attention of the [Music] world [Music] shua Gia a Beijing office worker is meeting an important [Music] client the venue is over 10 km away and she must be on [Music] time but some 8 million people will be joining her in the morning rush hour when beijing's roads are gridlocked Beijing has quickly expanded in all directions from the old Central City to the surrounding areas Beijing is home to over 20 million people and over 5 million cars and their numbers are still increasing traffic jams have become an everyday headache restrictions on residence permits and the license plate Lottery system have failed to slow the growth special lanes for public transit and no Drive days based on license plate numbers have also proved ineffective the average Beijing worker now spends over 1 and 1/2 hours getting to and from work each and every [Music] day for commuters like Sher it makes more sense to take the subway if they want to arrive on time the existing 14 lines in Beijing totaling nearly 400 km link all of the main areas of the city but can no longer meet the growing demand construction of the world's largest urban real network is underway in Beijing the completed system will have 31 lines totaling 1,000 km of elevated above ground and underground [Music] tracks development of the urban rail system in many foreign cities took nearly a century but Beijing plans to have nearly 1,000 km of rail Lines within the next 10 years it's a monumental [Music] project a dozen construction companies over 10,000 construction workers and the world's most advanced excavation equipment have been working day and night in 2011 alone seven Subway Lines were simultaneously under construction digging hundreds of kilometers of tunnels and building over a 100 stations is a huge [Music] task in many large cities development of the subway system proceeded in tandem with growth of the city and sometimes even anticipated Urban expansion giving designers greater leeway Beijing a city with many centuries of History has become an international metrop the city's underground is already crammed with pipelines cables and foundations of high-rise buildings making the construction of subway tunnels a tremendous challenge new subway tunnels are being dug beneath these pipelines and cables this East West line crosses through the center of Beijing imposed an especially tough problem for [Music] designers [Music] the ancient streets and Lanes of Beijing have taken on a new Ro tourists have long seen them as symbols of traditional [Applause] [Music] Beijing the new Subway Lines must run just beneath them threatening the fragile ancient structures on the surface this was a major challenge for the subway [Music] designers but adjusting Roots is not always enough to ensure the safety of old buildings careful selection of construction techniques is also crucial this is the largest subway line design Department in Beijing designers are discussing the route near the ancient city after the overall route has been determined it will take at least another 3 years to work out the details and another four to complete they are working for nearly a decade in the future work on a new subway line opened in 2012 May well have begun in 2015 Beijing was an Imperial City in the past the city was first laid out in a square pattern with a Central north south axis and strict symmetry of architecture leang sir CH a master architect remarked that the central axis was the source of beijing's unique beauty and Grandeur Beijing still retains this unique pattern which determined the layout of sub lines designers adopted a different approach for construction of the new line to better protect the ancient above ground structures where the line runs close to the foundation of an ancient structure the tunnels for the two directions will run one on top of the other rather than in parallel this will reduce the excavation area and thus the impact on the foundation but a more important factor is the complexity of geological conditions in Beijing geological conditions have caused subway tunnels under construction to collapse in a few cities to avoid similar accidents in Beijing designers must carefully study the geology under the city the Geological Survey for the subway route is carried out late in night to reduce the impact on traffic the geological team digs a 40 m deep hole and collects samples every 50 [Music] m the first sample has been collected but the night is more than half over and there are still 300 holes to dig it's a painstaking job but it's crucial for the safety of the subway line in the early 1960s Beijing began to build the country's first subway line since there were not many buildings above the ground and the tunnels were constructed just 10 M below the ground the project adopted the cut and cover method no Advanced machines were used used almost all of the digging was done manually so progress was slow obviously such a slow pace would never fly [Music] today Beijing has changed beyond recognition The increased architectural density and traffic congestion have necessitated accelerated Subway construction an advanced type of tunnel Excavating machine has been widely adopted to dig new lines this is the tunnel boring machine or TBM also known as a mole the cutter head advances as it rotates to remove soil which is mixed with water and carried away by [Music] trunks [Music] the world's largest mole has a cutter head nearly 20 M across just getting this huge machine underground is a task in [Music] [Music] itself GA Shuan is the driver of the country's fastest TBM he operates the TBM 13 hours a day he has to accurately follow the design it's a complicated and hard jump for gal Shuan can only take a break when concrete liner segments are pieced together every 1.2 M normally six segments are assembled at a time the segments are of different sizes so workers have to ensure that they fit together [Music] seamlessly the lining process always follows right behind the [Music] mall as the tunnel takes shape another team inspects exit for compliance with the designated route to ensure the tunnel reaches the designated point at the other [Music] [Music] end it would be impossible to build the world's largest underground subway system in 10 years without the TBM nearly 100 tbms may be in operation at one time in Beijing at a cost of as much as 50 million Yan a piece the average construction cost per kilometer is nearly 1 billion Yan it was not long ago that Beijing could not afford such a huge expenditure China's rapid Economic Development over the past 30 years is has made this huge project possible people are amazed at beijing's rapid development but traffic congestion has also grown in tandem something had to be done to address this [Music] problem for the military museum station on line9 the traditional manual boring method was employed using this method it takes at least 18 months to dig 1 km compared to only 3 months with the mole but the TBM requires a large hole first to be dug which would be nearly impossible on this busy section of the changan [Music] [Music] Avenue at the same time the pace had to be accelerated to meet the 2012 deadline for [Music] completion [Music] and the line runs beneath line one further complicating the construction the plan calls for the intersection of the new line with the older line one at the military museum station but there is a [Music] workers drained water from the aquifer for 2 months but the level wasn't receding further complicating the [Music] project but this station is essential 1 km from the military museum station is The Beijing West railway station one of the busiest in [Music] China there formerly was no subway line to the station located in an area that has long been plagued by heavy traffic line 9 will make it convenient for people using the Beijing West Railway Station to take the subway easing traffic congestion in the area but experts still had no feasible plan for construction of the new military museum [Music] station and the the other end of the project geological conditions were slowing the pace of the [Music] TBM a long river running from west to east in the city tends to carry sand to the east leaving coarser gravel in the West an ordinary TBM has a hard time cutting through the gravel Laden soil rocks become trapped in the disc Cutters reducing their effectiveness eventually the Cutters can sustain serious damage this condition is a big problem for both domestic and foreign [Music] Subways because of the project urgency and the slow pace of progress G Shuan must work even longer hours he meets new challenges at every [Music] [Music] turn [Music] at 5 a.m. the first train slowly sets out on the new [Music] [Music] line [Music] and like the rest of the city's rail system it will operate a little over 10 hours a day this is also quitting time for gal R Shan it is the happiest moment of the day for gal as he walks from the mall to the end of the tunnel he looks at his text messages and enjoys the first ligh of the [Music] day after extended discussions experts finally decided that the station will be located 8 and2 m deeper than planned so that it is below the closed [Music] aquifer there are two digging methods the cut and cover method and the tunneling method each will employ strict safety measures for the first method the tunnel must be Stu stabilized with many steel rods to protect the workers but this method requires the demolition of many buildings seriously impacting traffic flow moreover relocation costs would be astronomical so a new method was adopted and the shield tunneling method workers gradually build the station digging out small spaces as needed and then removing the excess soil between the spaces the entire construction process is carried out underground this method avoids the need to disturb above ground structures and traffic making it the best approach for this station even though the shield tunneling method is much more difficult and timec consuming than other me methods directly above the workers only 3 m in places is the closed aquifer that couldn't be drained uring the stability of this soil layer was a top priority reinforced concrete was used to stabilize the ceiling as the tunnel was [Applause] dark [Applause] but another great challenge was ensuring that the surface level sank Less Than 3 mm train tracks have stringent limits for land compaction if the surface of a certain spot sinks over 3 mm trains have to slow down down there this complicates the operation of transfer [Music] stations though 3 mm is extremely small compared to the overall size of the project it is a crucial parameter directly above is line one which has already been in operation for more than half a century line one beijing's first subway line is a vital East West Route in Beijing it carries over 1 million passengers per day it runs under changan Avenue and passes by tanaman square known as the heart of [Applause] Beijing there are several stations located close to the square so the line is packed with tourists during the holidays but it was initially built for military [Music] purposes most people in Beijing either walked or rode a rickshaw to get around in the early 1950s the then Premier Joe en Li declared that Beijing would only need 200 buses to meet these City's Transportation requirements the subway was solely for use in the event of war the Moscow Subway played an important role in World War II realizing this China carried out 10 years of Preparatory work and then began the construction of its first subway line in [Music] 1965 it was a very difficult project for the country to carry out at that time [Music] [Music] for it took 4 years of hard work to complete the line which opened in 1969 it was only open to the military at that time ordinary citizens could only visit it with a recommendation letter from their employer the subway stations were fancifully known as underground [Music] palaces the military museum station is now being built underneath line one a unique method which was first adopted to prevent the ground from sinking this method was used 20 years years ago in the London Underground to prevent Big Ben from [Music] leaning when it was discovered that the land was sinking workers put steel tubes into the soil and poured cement into the soil through the tubes to consolidate the land but that was a retroactive solution safety was given top priority for this huge [Music] project reports on all Beijing Subway construction projects come in here every day this team of professionals monitors every construction site and takes every single problem [Applause] [Music] seriously another new line is now facing the problem of Crossing an existing line but a different approach was [Music] adopted this is also a transfers station connecting an old and a new line but there is no closed aquifer or soil layer between the two stations instead the two lines run very close to one another a large space will be excavated Beneath The 40-Year-Old existing station while maintaining normal operation of line one and limiting surface level to within a 3 mm deviant nearly everyone thought that it was a crazy idea except for engineer how his secret weapon was the use of hydraulic jacks hydraulic jacks were used on the loadbearing walls and steel rods in the new station eventually they will be between the two stations the Jacks weigh 30 to 90 kg a piece but can handle a load 1,600 times their own weight the location for each was accurately calculated hydraulic pressure in the Jacks generated by surface equipment keeps the ceiling from sinking change in the surface level was closely monitored during the entire project when the surface area began and sinking below the 3mm limit workers increased hydraulic pressure in the Jacks gal Shuan was becoming frustrated with the slow pace of excavation at the same time experts were working on improving the mole's performance in the complicated geological conditions people spend an average of over 2 hours in traffic during the afternoon rush hour in Beijing daily passenger traffic on line five is already 800,000 close to the passenger flow forecast for [Music] 2031 and traffic congestion has spread from the city center to surrounding areas [Music] thanks to the city's many advantages Beijing has attracted many people from outside the city according to the sixth population census the population in Beijing neared 20 million in 2010 over 7 million or about a third of this population comes from outside of [Music] Beijing the nature of almost every city is determined by its layout the Chinese tradition of central Authority is an ancient concept one that is especially evident in Beijing the city is expanding in all directions from a central point beijing's Central Area contains the most expensive housing the greatest concentration of companies and the busiest streets moreover the city center enjoys the finest resources available although his office is in the city center jaia cannot afford to live there he has to take the first train of the day to arrive at work on time but Shinu is not so lucky [Music] a large number of people travel between the city center and the outskirts seriously taxing the capacity of surface Transportation Beijing has continuously expanded outward from the center as the center itself grows larger and larger a huge Metropolis needs a core Zone but this Zone cannot expand indefinitely decision makers must properly balance the city's Resources with the traffic volume and environmental concerns a new plan is being carried out in Beijing on the basis of the north south and east west axis satellite communities are being developed on the east and west sides of Beijing and new areas with a comprehensive range of stores and services are being developed within the old city limits but Beijing has maintained its basic layout for centuries in addition the ring roads around the city have laid the foundation for the city's further development rail Transit is the most obvious choice for breaking away from this [Music] pattern large scale s rail development in the city's outlying areas is gradually alleviating traffic congestion in the downtown area the length of the urban rail network in Beijing is projected to reach 1,000 km by 2020 that's equal to the distance between Beijing and Shanghai but finding the room for more lines in the increasingly crowded City will not be easy this steel bar which is 16 M long and weighs 45 tons is part of China's largest TBM which is being assembled at the construction site of subway line 14 it has a diameter of over 10 m that's equivalent to a three-story building all the parts must be transported by crane to the underground site one at a time to be assembled on site it's a long [Music] process it takes half a year to get the mole assembled and adjusted as it moves forward it leaves a tunnel more than 10 m in diameter unlike traditional single track tunnels this tunnel has enough space for two parallel tracks conserving precious underground space the subway system in Beijing is turning into an urban rail Transit Network for the greater city as the network grows Transportation becomes more and more convenient completing the planned system within 10 years will be a Monumental task unprecedented in history the worsening traffic congestion inspires everyone involved in this project to work even harder [Music] line 8 which runs along beijing's Central north south axis was about to open interior decoration was going up and designers were discussing the final details the 29th Olympic games were held in Beijing in 2008 the bird's nest alone had 100,000 Spectators for the opening ceremony the huge crowd leaving at the end of the ceremony could have paralyzed traffic but fortunately Beijing Subway Lines 5 8 and 10 were all completed in time for the games a section of line 8 was even named the Olympics line the Subways had the huge task of providing transportation for Olympic [Music] Spectators but the capacity of each train was limited so it was still a challenge to efficiently handle such a large influx of passengers the most feasible solution was to increase the frequency of trains a train is now testing the safety signal system on a soon Tobe opened line the aim of the test was to see if the interval between trains could be safely shortened as a test the train would try to forcibly proceed against the red light the test was being closely monitored at the control center as the train approaches the signal at the designated speed [Music] if the train runs straight through the red light the test is a failure the train approaches the red light doesn't go through the system forces it to stop 2 m ahead of the red light the minimum required interval between two trains thanks to the world's most advanced signal system the interval between subway trains has been shortened from 10 minutes to 3 minutes this allowed the 100,000 Spectators pouring out of the bird's nest to be dispersed within just 40 minutes the successful reduction has been applied to other lines during rush hours reducing the interval between trains from 10 to 2 and 1/2 minutes this allows 24 trains an hour to arrive at a Station instead of only six quadrupling [Applause] capacity the strong need for greater Transportation capacity has forced Beijing to accelerate Subway [Music] Construction [Applause] more and more lines gradually expand the city's Network the need for greater capacity higher safety standards and more Comfort has raised the requirements for new subway trains a large number of the most modern trains are now being produced it takes the factory 2 and a half days to ruce the components do all the welding and put all the parts together [Music] together it then takes 2 months of testing before a new train can be put into operation Beijing Subways handled 400 million passenger trips in 2000 this is predicted to rise to 1.8 billion by [Music] 2010 making the Beijing system one of the busiest in the world and one of the most [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] convenient Hong Kong has the world's most convenient Subway inter system the unique parallel design enables passengers to change trains from a single platform new lines in Beijing have been emulating this highly efficient method [Music] all of the information comes in here the brain of the system where every train on every route is monitored when beijing's Subway Development plan is completed in 2020 this huge system will be monitoring the world's largest urban rail Transit Network [Music] [Music] for [Music] G Shuan is about to cut through to the designated exit point the excavation was expected to take 3 months but instead took over a year due to the complicated geological conditions project will soon be finished but this is a risky moment if the angle of the TBM is slightly off it could collapse the mouth of the tunnel allowing sand and water to pour [Music] in it's a critical and nervous moment for G sh CR CR [Music] [Applause] [Music] right after each celebration G Shuan takes a walk in the new [Music] [Music] tunnel a team of many thousands of people are still working on this Mega project they are giving it their all in the hopes of creating an engineering miracle that will Amaze the World by 2020 beijing's massive Rail Project will be completed helping to invigorate and change the look of the [Music] city this project has been in the planning stage for 20 years soon this 632 M skyscraper will to power over both the Jin Mau Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center the project is based on The Bold concept of a vertical City it will be the first skyscraper of this size to have a double pain glass facade the 24 Hanging Gardens will present an environmentally friendly and futuristic face to the world Shanghai Tower the last skyscraper to be built in pong in Shanghai is a attracting the attention of the world but the project is facing complex construction conditions and harsh [Music] [Music] criticism Lu Ja Way in pong is the busiest business district in Shanghai it's 6:00 a.m. and workers are arriving at the construction site to pour the concrete for the 35th floor and prepare the rebar on the 25th floor this should take 5 [Music] days this will require 12 steel columns totaling nearly 100 tons total of 50 km of rebar and 80 truckloads of concrete and they will be working 180 m in the air the steel platform which weighs 1,000 tons has to be raised 4 M and the world's four largest civilian Ed Tower cranes had to be lifted 20 M but all all this is less than 1% of all work involved in construction of the main building and there are still huge problems to be addressed event this building on the Unseen site required unprecedented courage and caution [Music] no one knew whether this skyscraper would be accepted by the people of Shanghai or attract the top businesses from around the [Music] globe the pressure from expectations for Shanghai tower has been building for 20 [Music] years just 170 years ago Shanghai was a small town on a salty Wasteland in 1842 Shanghai was forced open as a commercial Port situated at the estery of the youngu river and the midpoint of China's north south Coastline the city soon became the Chinese commercial center for foreign trade it has recently been catching up with the wave of skyscraper Construction in the West in September 1929 the construction of Sassoon house China's first building of over 10 floors was completed 5 years later the joint Savings Society building was built then the tallest building in [Music] [Music] Asia in just two decades the skyline of the Bund became one of the most iconic views in all of East Asia in the first half of the 20th century [Music] when China instituted its reform and opening up policy the Shanghai people wanted to return the city to its former glory in 1993 the pong new area was set up in shangai this ambitious City plans to become an Asian Financial Hub as important as Hong Kong and Tokyo by the year 2020 the city is leaving the past behind and being reborn as a worldclass city with an all new look Jin ma Tower a 42.5 M skyscraper was completed in 1999 in 2008 the Shanghai World Financial Center was completed at 492 M People waited for one last skyscraper to complete the [Music] skyline government officials finally decided that that should be the Shanghai Tower the developers believe the name reflects the future of Shanghai but they need a design worthy of the name so they turned to the [Music] experts in 2006 the Shanghai Tower project committee issued an international viard invitation it was obvious that designing such a skyscraper would be a worldclass challenge one street to the north of the shangai tower is the 88 story Jin Mau Tower its design emulates a traditional Chinese tiered Pagoda and perfectly Blends Chinese and Western styles to the east is the uniquely designed Shanghai World Financial Center with its strong and simple outline the Skywalk Observatory on the 100 floor is the world's highest public observation Point these two skyscrapers have long been synonymous with finance and trade in a modern and fashionable package at the same time the designers want this building to stand out from the other two and this guys is now doing the American architectural firm of Gensler had never built such a skyscraper before but they were eager for this rare opportunity the lead designers for the project are Arthur Gensler from the US and sha Jun from China you know this building is about the past and it's a beautiful building this building is about the present and it's a fine building building but June really created a building that's special that's about the future yeah I think the the design concept need to be together as a family the competition was fierce the gentler team whose strength was in interior design needed to have a secret weapon to [Music] succeed near the high-rise buildings in the luad area is shanghai's largest public Green Space an area greater than the floor area of Jin Mau the world financial center and Shanghai Tower [Music] combined reserving this space in luja way where the land is especially valuable was entirely necessary to preserve the quality of life in the [Music] city this green space gave the Gensler team the idea of including such a green space in their design then to expand plenty of light for the space was ensured by the extensive use of a double pain glass facade never seen before in a skyscraper each section of the glass is 10 stories tall this creates a light and spacious Atrium independent of the outside weather it it's an adventurous [Music] [Music] plan the architect's design for the facade called for the glass to have a whirl Poole pattern to give the building a dynamic appearance the investors will be the final judge of the design we could never have done this building we just The Architects were forced to continue reducing the overall area of the glass facade the original idea of a Whirlpool effect was changed into a round inner layer and a triangular outer layer with blunt Corners this should reduce the wind resistance as well as be a contrast with the solid outlines of the Gin Mau Tower and Shanghai World Financial system Center the estimate for the amount of glass required was only 18% more than what was originally required for a single pain glass exterior the design was finally set but the team was still on [Music] edge there were 19 proposals all from Top International design firms the three rounds of proposal reviews lasted nearly a year narrowing the field to two the Gensler proposal and a proposal from the British Foster and partners who designed Russia Tower Beijing Airport Terminal 3 and Hong Kong International Airport they drew their inspiration from the smooth lines made by a Chinese writing brush the crystal clear appearance of the building was very [Music] eye-catching the results were finally in relief sense of relief it had all been worth it gensler's green proposal passed the final review everyone now knows what Shanghai Tower will look like and can't wait to see the model transformed into the actual the project broke ground on November the 29th in 2008 new and tougher challenges lay [Music] [Applause] ahead any architect dreaming of building a SC skyscraper in Shanghai has to deal with the especially soft soil Shanghai is located on an aluvial plane at the mouth of the Yi River the city sits on a deep layer of water soaked soil as soft as cottage cheese geot technical expert gu gu wrong demonstrates the danger using a block of tofu and the heavy model [Music] this problem can be resolved with supporting piles under the foundation the resistance to downward movement of the piles is enough to withstand the weight of the structure in addition the building rests on sections of reinforced concrete to spread the weight this ensures that the top part of the building is as stable as a rock building shahi's tallest skyscraper on such soft soil could spell endless nightmares for and [Music] s the first concern is choosing foundation piles capable of supporting this huge building which weighs over 800,000 tons that's the same as 70 Eiffel Towers when in the concrete foundation is semi hard highpressure cement is injected into it which pushes the soil out of the shell thus filling all the gaps between the shell and the soil this greatly increases pile's load capacity this was three times the Improvement the experts had expected this means that about a th000 foundation piles can support the weight of the main building and ensure its safety but there was more trouble to come in June 20 9 a construction accident in Shanghai alarmed the geotechnical experts to absolutely ensure the safety of the building the engineers decided that 12th of the building should be underground this would mean digging down to a depth of 30 m but there was a problem with that if we dig the soil out of this area it would only leave about 20 M between the hole and the underground portions of both gin maau Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center this would pose too much of a risk the best way would be to First dig the hole for the main building then the holes for the other buildings would be dug out when the surrounding areas had been reinforced but the pit for the main building alone would still be 121 M across an area equal to 1.6 regulation soccer fields and 33 M deep with just 5 days remaining before Chinese New Year 2010 the hole for the foundation of the main building is finished there was no China New Year vacation for the engineers and construction crew after the thousands of workers eat their New Year's dinner together they begin preparing the form workk for the massive foundation of the main building the foundation has an area equivalent to 1.6 soccer fields and is 6 M thick it was essential that all the concrete be poured within about 60 hours or so [Music] the greatest threat comes from the heat generated as the cement cures when cement is mixed with water it rapidly releases a large amount of heat the heat in the poured concrete can cause the temperature inside the concrete to reach 60° C this can cause the concrete to expand and crack the engineers must carefully control the amount of water reduction agent in the concrete but this puts a strain on [Music] Transportation this task had to be all done at one time there would be no way to redo it in the event of failure which could endanger the safety of the entire project on March the 26th 2010 over 500 construction workers and 18 pumps began pouring concrete brought by 80% of all of the mixer trucks in the city it took 63 hours to pour all of the concrete for the unprecedentedly massive Foundation the workers could now stop worrying about the foundation and begin work on the rest of the [Music] [Applause] [Music] building in September 2010 2 years after work began the construction reaches the surface level there were high hopes that Shanghai Tower would come to represent the spirit of Shanghai but there was still the question of how tall the building would eventually be there are already many famous skyscrapers in the world including the Empire State Building at 381 M the petronis towers in quala Lumpa at 452 M the taipe 101 at 508 M and the Burge Khalifa in Dubai at 828 m [Music] for it was finally decided that the ultimate height of Shang high tower would be 632 [Music] m but the higher the building the greater is the danger for the construction workers during the final stage the crew would be working over 600 m in the air just looking down from such a height can make you dizzy that alone working at such a [Music] height the core cylinder of reinforced concrete that supports the entire building was built first enough space is reserved in the center for the elevators the core cylinder must be built at a speed of one floor every 5 days but bad weather often hampers Construction the steel platform on the top of Shanghai Tower is the secret that makes it possible to continue construction regardless of outside [Music] conditions workers can directly go to the top of the steel platform via an elevator the platform features a guard rail nearly 2 m high around the edge for worker safety even fear of heights is no longer a [Music] problem hundreds of tons of steel were transported to the top of the steel platform at night within easy reach of the workers the platform also eliminates the risk of falling objects injuring the workers below the problem is how to raise the steel platform weighing 1,000 tons to the next level when the current floor is finished Engineers find their inspiration from rock climbing the steel platform can use the finished concrete walls to climb upward like rock climbers do Chun gang Chief hoist operator for the platform is now organizing the hoisting operation the two hands and two feet of the platform are secured in the load carrying holes with [Music] coral both the inner and outer frames have to be lifted twice each time the platform is moved to the next story it takes 6 hours to raise the steel platform to the 35th floor and this already [Music] nighttime now over 100 workers are at work on the platform first task is to set up the 50 km long rebar workers first bind the pieces of rebar together with steel wire and weld them [Music] the work must be done in 2 days now the form works for the concrete are complete they are waiting for the concrete that will come through this pipeline to the manifold on top of the steel platform 600 m in the air because they have to pump all the concrete in one go normal concrete won't work that high press pump pumping the concrete is extremely noisy the vibration becomes even stronger wherever the pipe is turned normal concrete could easily block the pipeline because of the sharp needle-like stones in the concrete Engineers had to change the shape of those stones to resolve the problem this kind of concrete is called self compacting concrete it doesn't even need vibration to easily pass through the pipeline ensuring that the concrete will have no trouble reaching the 35th floor the new building is growing at the rate of one story every 5 days in a factory 40 km away workers are busy putting together the nine segment Central cylinder structure of Shanghai Tower it will be supported by eight giant columns and four corner columns the building's double pane glass facade is directly hung on the steel structure giving the building a soft and graceful appearance the entire steel structure is being manufactured by by two factories working together putting the huge steel segments in place is no easy task Engineers have to make sure that after such giant objects are transported to the construction site they can fit together perfectly so they have to do a trial assembly first but this is only one section of the truss its steel structure is already of over 3,000 tons in [Music] weight that would make the costs too high the building information modeling or Bim system greatly helps reduce costs by handling all the information on design construction equipment and materials this enables the different teams to coordinate their efforts finally all this information is used to produce a 3D model it not only shows how the outside of the building will look but also shows details like walls and windows and even the placement of pipelines and wiring traditional blueprints could never show so much detail any crazy idea that an architect might dream up can be tested and revised through the BM system they no longer have to worry about having to make major changes at the construction site once all the data for the Ste structural components is in the BM system the system can simulate the complete trial assembly process the steel structural components are soon ready to go to the construction site but their transportation is making 64-year-old Mr pan lose sleep the huge components have to be transported across downtown Shanghai at night so the transportation crew has to work at night today's work gets off to a bad start because of the limited space in which the trucks have to maneuver the truck was having trouble getting into the proper position it takes an hour for Mr pan to get the truck into a position where the crane could reach the huge Steel part and this was only the first trip of the [Music] night the 4 M2 12 ATD heavyduty Tower cranes each weighing 500 tons easily lift the huge Parts this model crane has a maximum lifting capacity of 100 tons and is the largest of its kind in China Wan Shan is one of the experienced crane [Music] operators Mr way has the greatest View From The Highest Point at the construction site but with it comes the terror of being alone and isolated high in the air during the 12-hour shifts of the tower crane operators they can only communicate with others via the intercom got good good working at such Heights is risky an average of 82 people a year die in tower crane accidents in the us alone when the four Tower cranes are working together the risk is greatly increased if a tower crane should bump into one of the others consequences could be disastrous but there are a number of safety measures in place to prevent [Music] this but today the operation isn't going well a rainstorm has temporarily suspended crane operations not all the work is hindered by the rain the work of installing the steel beams continues on the steel platform but the rain makes ground command especially important the steel beam is now in place and the weather has cleared up Mr way can finally take a [Music] [Applause] [Music] break but what he likes to do most is take pictures from his high perch [Music] his work schedule is normally very tight so such opportunities are there work on the core cylinder and the outer steel structure proceed simultaneously to keep the project on schedule the steel platform which is raised one floor every 5 days it's getting close to the tower crane so the crane must also be raised some more it's hard to believe that the rise of the tower crane relies on just two suspension cables the Mast which is 60 M long and weighs 500 tons can swiftly climb them the way that a gymnast performs on the parallel bars every tower crane will have to be raised 27 times during the project but the engineers are more concerned about bringing the cranes back down after they reach the top of the building over 6 100 m in the air it's the same elevator that workers use every day the key is breaking down the tower cranes into several parts in the end only a crane arm without exceeding 600 kg was left which can be safely taken to the ground by the elevator [Music] the last skyscraper to be built in the Lu Jau District of pong Shanghai is rising out of the ground the New Shanghai Tower Jin maau Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center will be the three most stunning landmarks in Shanghai the realization of the this project is a dream that was born 20 years ago but there are also many people who are critical of skyscrapers the negative side of skyscrapers has gradually become more obvious over the past two decades including High construction costs high energy consumption and separation from nature skyscrapers can be full of life during the day but usually become deathly still at night people have become more aware of these drawbacks so the Builders of Shanghai Tower looked for ways to address [Music] them they plan to use the latest Green Technology to build a classic in eco-friendly architecture rainwater collected on the roof will be stored in a reservoir and after processing it will be used for flushing toilets mopping floors Etc this will save enough water in a year to fill 250 olympic sized swimming pools they also plan to have three groups of five wind power generators on top of the building this should be able to generate enough electricity to light the entire building the 19 green technologies adopted in the project should reduce the energy consumption of the building by 25% the most outstanding eco-friendly feature is the double pain glass facade concerns about global warming and the greenhouse effect have led to criticism of large glass facades because of the heat loss involved but the use of double pain glass reduces the heat loss the dead space between the two panes works like the space in a thermos bottle to insulate the building so that the building is warm in Winter and cool in the summer this reduces energy consumption for the heating and air condition iing by about 50% compared to a single Paine facade but such a facade had never been tried before in a building over 350 M tall two Chinese facade manufacturers ranked number one and number five in the world worked together on the project it was a huge challenge even for such experienced companies they tried and rejected one plan after another it took 3 years of trial and error to work out a preliminary plan for making the [Music] fa meanwhile on the site work on the core cylinder on the 35th floor is complete but the schedule is still tight in order to complete the project by 2015 as scheduled the engineers must work on the internal structure and the fac faade simultaneously the facade designers must complete revision and testing of their design within the next three [Music] [Applause] [Music] months there is no reinforced Concrete in this huge space a steel support beam goes across the space from the inner layer of glass to support the suspended ring beam the entire outer layer glass is supported by the ring beam the plates were produced by experienced workers using the most advanced production equipment and tested to Ure that they can withstand the most severe conditions the first concern is fire safety the fire in the skyscraper in shinyang in 2011 shocked the entire country the glass facade quickly cracked allowing the Flames to spread and causing huge loss because Shan high tower will be 632 M tall the fire department would have a hard time dealing with a fire high in the building so Engineers must eliminate as many fire risks as possible in a laboratory 1,000 km away the glass plates are exposed to high temperature testing ordinary tempered glass fails at less than 2 minutes and the heat tempered glass falls out in half an hour when the aluminium frame begins to melt but this sample in the middle is still intact after 1 hour at 1,000° Centigrade this gives plenty of time for people to evacuate the glass plates for the inner part of the facade will go through a variety of tests as seen here to ensure the safety of the building [Applause] meanwhile back at the factory moong Li is about to perform a test on the exterior glass plate he forcefully strikes the edge with a hammer until it gradually begins to crack but no glass falls out a good seal is the crucial factor for the outside glass wall it must withstand all types of weather to protect the interior of Shanghai Tower in this test moong Li and his team have built a large sealed glass box which will subject to conditions simulating high wind winds and thunderstorms the spray of water is equivalent to a Rain depth of 250 cm per hour and the strong wind from the propeller is aimed directly at the v-shaped notch the most fragile part of the box if the model passes tests it will mean the whole design is a success after 3 days of testing everything looks good but then moyong L notices that the water seems to be accumulating towards the lower part of the building the designers inform the architects of the problem and propose in enlarging and increasing the angle of the gutters for better drainage this is hardly the first problem encountered in the project but each has been resolved as it emerged Shanghai tower has been under construction since 200 six it's taken 5 years of The Sweat and Tears of nearly 2,000 people to bring this project to this point the people participating in the project have experienced exhaustion difficulties confusion and dilemmas the project is as challenging as a marathon for everyone [Music] [Applause] involved but the great realization of everyone's dream is within sight Shanghai Tower is scheduled for completion in 2015 when people from all over will come to this self-contained world for work shopping relaxation or entertainment the 24 Hanging Gardens will give visitors a taste of freedom and fun high in the sky the fastest elevators in the world will whisk passengers to the top floor at a speed of 18 m per second from the observation deck on the top floor completion of the project will create a brand new Skyline in Shanghai [Music] [Music]
