Welcome to TDC. This is our mini-documentary
on the most ambitious, fascinating infrastructure Megaprojects of the near future. The rulers of the United Arab Emirates have
insane amounts of money to spend. Thanks to everyone’s thirst for oil, they’ve been
on a construction spree unlike any the world has ever seen for such a small country, investing
in one ambitious infrastructure project after another. At one point, 24 percent of all the
world’s construction cranes we in Dubai. Unfortunately, that was before the 2008-2009
global financial meltdown, which led to much of the investment in the city drying up faster
than the water on somebody who just got out of the pool at the Burj Khalifa. But the government
insists that many of these projects have simply been delayed, and are putting their money
where their mouth is with the recent approval of a $32 billion expansion of Dubai’s Al
Maktoum International Airport that will break ground by the end of 2014. When complete,
it’ll suddenly have the capacity to become the busiest airport in the world in both total
passengers - at 220 million a year - and total cargo of 12 million annual tonnes of goods
that can move through it--that’s almost 3 times more than what takes off from the
runways of the world’s current leader, Hong Kong’s International Airport. It’s terminals
will able to hold 100 of the massive new Airbus A380’s that are over 2/3ds of a football
field long and cost $300 million a pop. The UAE’s Emirates airline already owns more
of those planes than anyone else in the world. It’s the largest airline in the Middle East
and will eventually move into the Al Maktoum airport to help jump start activity. The government’s
plan is for the airfield to be the heartbeat of a city within the larger city of Dubai
called World Central, which the UAE thinks will be home to 900,000 residents in the near
future. The airport also hopes to be the central hub for the emerging Middle East, North African,
and South Asian economic bloc known as MENASA. But time will tell whether the Shaikh’s
vision for Dubai actually becomes a reality, or fades like some vicious mirage. This is Songdo International Business District,
the world’s most futuristic urban area. It’s being built 40 miles southwest of the
second-most populated city in the world, Seoul, South Korea. The $40 billion project is along
the waterfront in the city of Incheon and is embracing two key concepts that urban planners
are in love with: The first is Aerotropolis, which means the airport is integrated into
the urban center instead of banishing it far outside of the city. This allows for shorter
trips to and from the place that’s going to get you out of town--this’ll be an emerging
pattern in 21st century planning as air travel continues to become accessible to more and
more people in our increasingly interconnected world. Songdo is brilliantly directly connected
to the airport via the 7-mile long Incheon bridge so you’ve just got a straight shot
that gets you there in like 10 minutes that’s also got these incredible views and is the
first thing visitors see coming into the city. The other key theme is Ubiquitous City, which
is a uniquely Korean concept where every device, component, service is linked to an informational
network through wireless computing technology, allowing for greater coordination and a more
efficient and synchronized city than has ever been possible before. An example of this is
Songdo’s trash system, which won’t rely on garbage trucks, because a network of tubes
will suck in the garbage straight from the can and through a system of pipes, transport
it efficiently to treatment facilities. Songdo’s so dedicated to being a model for sustainability
that it has set aside 40% of its land area to be outdoor spaces like parks and it’ll
become the first city in the world outside of the United States to achieve LEED certification,
which is the highest energy consumption and waste standards possible with currently available
technology. As a tip-of-the-hat to other great cities, Songdo will also incorporate replicas
of New York’s Central Park and Venice’s historic canals. Overall, construction is
currently half done. It already has 67,000 people living there studying and working at
its many schools, including the foreign campuses of four American universities, but it’s
struggled to attract Korean businesses as the government is refusing to give tax incentives
for relocation, because that would create an unfair playing field favoring Songdo over
other cities in the country. Still, if it stays squarely focused on the future, Songdo’s
a long-term investment that’s likely to pay off. Nicaragua is about to embark on what may be
the boldest and riskiest Megaproject in the history of the world. One that will change
it forever. It’s going to build the biggest canal in the world . The $50 billion Nicaragua
Grand Canal will cut the country in half to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific,
running through the biggest lake in Central America. At 173-miles-long, it’ll dwarf
the 120 mile-long Suez Canal in Egypt and directly compete with the Panama Canal 250
miles to the south, through which more than 15,000 ships already pass each year. But in
the coming years, many more ships full of goods and raw materials are going to try and
pass back and forth from the Pacific to the Atlantic to connect Europe, Brazil and the
Eastern Coast of the United States, with China and the rest of Asia. The story of how little six-million-man Nicaragua,
the second-poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is able to afford such an expensive
project is a fascinating case study of globalization, and how capitalism is increasingly driving
geopolitical decision-making. In June of last year, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s
Sandanista party also controlled parliament and - without any real debate - gave a 50-year,
no-bid contract to Chinese telecommunications magnate Wang Jing to build and manage the
proposed canal. And, it just so happens that, also last year, according to a report in the
LA Times, Wang hosted a number of Nicaraguan officials and businessmen on a trip to China,
where the powerful and connected Wang supposedly flaunted his extreme wealth and was accompanied
at all times by Chinese military officers and other high-ranking governmental officials.
So, it’s tough to believe him when he insists that the Chinese government is not financially
backing the project, especially when we already know that China is using state financed companies
to buy more and more assets in the West. The opportunity to own the world’s most valuable
shipping lane seems too tempting for the Chinese government to pass up. The supposedly democratic government of Nicaragua
is using a page out of China’s playbook, by refusing to release any of the studies
about the impacts of the canal until December 2014, the same month construction will begin.
That’s because there is a loooong list of environmental and humanitarian concerns. The
project will tear through countless ecosystems and communities, and rip into the source of
much of the country’s fresh water, Lake Nicaragua. The residents whose land is on
the canal route have received no word on what the government plans to do for them in terms
of compensation and relocation. But, as easy as it is to criticize the way
the project is being handled, it’s also fairly hypocritical of me, as an American,
to mount a very convincing argument against the plan. Afterall, about a hundred years
ago, US President Theodore Roosevelt basically took control of Panama and pushed through
the canal there, a project that’s benefitted America time and time again, and has made
Panama economically better off in the long run. But we’re not living in 1914... Now is the time of social media-fueled revolution,
where images and video fly around the world instantly, empowering even the poorest locals
to use the power of the global community to rally support for their cause and exert political
pressure in unpredictable ways. So, what I’m saying is that it may have been easy for President
Ortega see all that money flying around and secretly, singlehandedly approve a massively
disruptive project like this, but when those bulldozers start tearing apart the countryside
- and people’s homes - there’s probably going to be hell to pay for not consulting
the voters at all. This could be shaping up to be another one of those important moments
of struggle in world history between the powerful have’s and the have nots. On the one hand, you have the limitless funding
of the Chinese who want that flag-in-the-dirt, statement-making moment for their country
of staking a claim in the Americas. We know the canal would benefit corporations in the
west through the shipping and trade benefits I outlined earlier. And with construction
set to begin in Nicaragua next month - there doesn’t seem to be any stopping it from
starting. But on the other hand, this thing is going
to take six years at a minimum to finish, and if we’ve learned anything from recent
history, it’s that a lot can happen in six weeks or six months, let alone six years. On a person-to-person basis, the United Arab
Emirates has the biggest Ecological Footprint in the world thanks to its prolific oil production
and the massive construction boom that’s been going on there for the last decade. So
it’s surprising to learn that the UAE is home to Masdar--the world’s first zero-carbon,
zero-waste city. To meet this ambitious goal, it’s powered only by renewable energy, like
a 54-acre 88,000 panel solar farm beyond the cities’ walls. That’s right, I said walls.
The designers studied ancient cities to learn the most effective planning methods to reduce
energy consumption. One of the key things are walls that helps to keep the high, hot
desert winds away from its inhabitants. They also raised the entire foundation of the site
a few feet above the surrounding land to keep Masdar cooler and spaced the buildings much
closer together to keep the streets and walkways narrow, and mostly in the shade. These techniques
- combined with 130-foot wind towers that suck air from above and convert it into a
cool breeze blowing on the street - mean Masdar is a comfortable 70 degrees fahrenheit when
just a few meters away, the thermostat rises well above 100. Plus, there’s no driving
in the city and any car that enters is parked at the outskirts. A system of driverless electric
vehicles then ferry people from place to place underground, and a light rail system is also
available above ground, which means there’s no need for streets. And in a move that cuts
both water and electricity consumption more than half, there are no light switches or
water taps--everything is controlled by movement sensors. This unprecedented level of environmental
consciousness has won it hard-earned endorsements from environmental conservation groups like
Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. The German engineering giant Siemens has located
its Middle East headquarters there, as has the International Renewable Energy Agency.
The Masdar Institute for Science and Technology - a small postgraduate university that was
founded through a collaboration with MIT - occupies one of Masdar’s first completed buildings
and is already producing great work and first-class researchers. So the city undeniably has a
solid foundation, but it’s got a lot to do still if it’s going to meet its ambitious
goal of housing 50,000 residents and hosting offices for 60,000 more commuters. The city’s
co-founder admits that Masdar is “a fraction of what it was supposed to be back in 2006
when we announced it. At the beginning of the project, nobody really anticipated how
difficult it is to build a city." This underscores the point many urban planners around the world
have made: that we should be focused on making our existing cities more sustainable instead
of building brand new ones. But even if Masdar only teaches us one or two major things about
what’s possible when it comes to sustainable urban design - and it does seem like it’s
already done that - then it’ll have been worth it, even if it takes much longer to
achieve its overall vision, or if it ultimately fails. Because let’s be honest, the UAE
was going to spend that $20 billion in oil revenue on something, so it’s better for
everyone that its going to an important experiment like Masdar rather than another row of gold
and marble crusted hotel skyscrapers or an electricity-sucking indoor snow park. This is the future--maglev trains. Japan’s
all aboard. They’re spending a staggering $85 billion over the next 30 years to connect
the island’s three largest cities: Tokyo to Nagoya to Osaka. That’s over three hundred
miles that you’ll be able to cover in about 67 minutes by racing through the countryside
at over 300 miles per hour. Maglev technology uses powerful magnetic charges to move rail
cars that float several inches above a concrete guideway, rather than riding on steel wheels.
This frictionless system allows for a smoother ride at significantly higher speeds than traditional
high speed rail. In contrast, California’s planned high speed rail system that’ll eventually
connect San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, will only be able to travel at top
speeds of 220 mph, but its estimated overall cost is ten billion dollars less than the
Japanese system and will cover a distance two and a half times as long. The Chinese
city of Shanghai has had a short maglev line in operation since 2004, but the Japanese
line is the world’s first intercity link to gain public approval. The project’s called
Chuo Shinkansen - or as the Japanese refer to it, Rinia Mota Ka - and is a culmination
of 40 years of Japanese maglev development that began with an unlikely partnership between
Japan Airlines and Japanese National Railways. What’s really impressive about this project
is that JR Central - the company that’s building the line - will finance the project
without public money, thanks largely to the success of the bullet train it’s run from
Tokyo to Osaka since the mid 1960’s. The company’s also pushing hard to construct
a maglev line between the American capital city of Washington DC and New York, which
would showcase the technology to the American market and the rest of the western world.
The Japanese government has even offered to fully finance the 40 mile first leg of the
US project from Baltimore to DC, a proposal Prime Minister Shinzo Abe directly pitched
to President Barack Obama during a meeting last year. But critics of Maglev say the costs
outweigh the benefits. Opponents have raised questions about the sheer monetary cost of
the project, its environmental impact, and whether it is really needed. Tunnels will
be blasted through some of Japan’s highest mountains to build the Chuo Shinkansen line.
But regardless of what the critics say, something had to change. When the Maglev system is done
it will help alleviate the overcrowding on Japan’s existing rail system and make it
feasible for commuters into Tokyo to live further outside of the city than they can
now. Many of the projects that we’ve profiled
in our Megaprojects series have a real purpose for advancing society, or at least meeting
the needs of a growing world economy. Then there’s Azerbaijan’s ridiculous Khazar
Islands, a project that - despite all the progress in the world - is the perfect example
of everything that’s still wrong with its power structure, but more on that in a moment.
The creatively named Azerbaijan Tower will be the world’s tallest building, about 800
feet taller than the current leader, the Burj Khalifa, and, insanely, twice as tall as the
tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, New York’s One World Trade Center. The Freudian
showpiece of the $100 billion project, Azerbaijan Tower will rise above the capital city, Baku,
and will be surrounded by 55 artificial islands built in the Caspian Sea with land gathered
by completely destroying a nearby mountain. There will also be at least eight hotels,
a Formula One racetrack, a yacht club, and an airport. So basically, we’re talking
about Donald Trump’s fantasy. Now, it’s one thing to build an over-the-top city like
Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which is one of the most-developed places in the world,
and a completely different thing for it to rise in Azerbaijan, which has a per capita
GDP that’s not even ⅕ as much as the UAE. This madness is the brainchild of the billionaire
developer Ibrahim Ibrahimov, who has extremely cozy ties with the corrupt government of the
newly oil rich nation of Azerbaijan. Just how corrupt is Azerbaijan? In a 2012 report
by watchdog group Transparency International that declared 2/3rds of the world’s countries
“highly corrupt,” Azerbaijan’s Prez Ilham Aliyev stood out from the pack as the
report’s infamous, “person of the year,” with untold amounts of money stashed in various
locations around the world. But back to President Aliyev’s good buddy, Ibrahimov, who lazily
came up with the tacky idea for the megaproject that’s basically a copy of Dubai’s island
development and mega-tower while on a flight home from, you guessed it, Dubai. He argues
that Khazer Islands will be home to 800,000 people, but doesn’t explain how those people
will afford its expensive apartments. Instead of investing in the future by maybe funding
a network of world class universities - which Azerbaijan isn’t even close to having - in
a country that borders no ocean and produces no product that the rest of the world wants,
besides oil, the government thinks its a good idea to build this. I doubt many of the nine
million people of Azerbaijan think it’s a very good idea. In fact, in a possible sign
of things to come, last year, Azerbaijanis in a city across the country, got so fed up
with the corrupt regime, they rioted for two entire days. But look, the capital is doing
some things right, Baku made Lonely Planet’s top ten ranking of the best nightlife spots
in the world. I just wonder how much they paid to get on the list. No list of Megaprojects would be complete
without including the largest-ever science project. The International Thermonuclear Experimental
Reactor (or, ITER) is a collaboration between China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia,
South Korea, and the United States that is under construction in Southern France where
researchers will attempt to see if they can, essentially, recreate the power of the Sun
and harness it in a steel bottle. Gas will be heated to over 150 million degrees in a
massive steel frame using giant magnets that will force some atoms together. In this experimental
reactor, the hope is to produce 10 times more energy than what is used to initiate the reaction,
or the equivalent of 500 megawatts of power for 1,000 seconds. Although electricity won’t
be generated at the ITER facility, a fusion power plant would use the heat generated to
drive turbines and produce power. Unlike nuclear fission, which are what all nuclear power
plants are today, fusion reactors should be completely safe, with no risk of a producing
a runaway chain reaction and no dangerous long-living radioactive waste. The fact that
nations who are competing in nearly every area of geopolitics and economics are coming
together to collaborate on a $50 billion project is a sign that the science is incredibly promising
and the potential benefits to humanity are profoundly game-changing. That’s why countries
that represent half of the world’s population and account for 2/3ds of the global economy
are participating: because solving fusion would mean prosperity for all, the closest
thing to limitless energy we can fathom. This month, after the completion of the ground
support structure which took four years to finish, the second phase of construction began:
the walls of the seven-story building where the experiment will take place. But we’re
still several years away from turning the thing on. The complex will make its first
attempt to produce plasma in a fusion reaction in 2020, with regular operations beginning
in 2027, 11 years behind schedule and over 40 years after the program was first initiated
in 1985. But no matter how long, or how many tries it takes to get it right, the prospect,
the hope of living in a world powered by this type of energy that we wouldn’t need to
fight over, or pump out of the ground, that we wouldn’t need to burn, that wouldn’t
harm our precious planet, that’s probably one of the most optimistic, hopeful ideas
I’ve ever heard, and it’s definitely one worth waiting for. China is about halfway done building the largest
expressway system in the world, and it’s done so at a feverish pace over the last 25
years to keep up with the rise of the automobile as the country - and the world - has shifted
away from a rail-based transportation system. The first expressway within the National Trunk
Highway System, as it’s called, opened in 1988 and today, just 26 years later, the system
is over 65,000 miles long. In the ten years since 2004, the network has tripled in length.
Each year, China’s now building new expressways equivalent in length to the distance of going
coast-to-coast and back in the United States. The Chinese system exceeded the total length
of the US interstate highway system back in 2011. This crazy expansion has happened because
the Chinese have embraced the car at a staggering pace. This next mind-blowing fact pretty much
sums up this entire video: as the country’s middle class boomed and tens of millions of
people suddenly could afford to buy cars, in the 20 years from 1985 to 2005, the number
of passenger vehicles in China increased from 19,000 to 62 million cars on the road, that’s
a mind-blowing increase of 323,000%. And that 62 million number is more than tripling to
200 million by 2020. That’s why we’ve seen those stories that I thought were a joke
the first time I read them, of traffic jams around Beijing stretching over 60 miles and
lasting for 11 days. So this project is sorely needed simply for the country to function.
When it’s finished, it will have cut total travel times between cities throughout the
country, by half, on average. Overall the total cost of building the entire system is
$240 billion dollars, that’s easily the biggest infrastructure project in human history,
with $12 billion a year being invested through 2020. It’s been able to afford to do this
without adding a national fuel tax because 95% of the system are toll roads owned by
private, for-profit companies. This is a problem, as tolls are expensive at over 10 cents per
mile...which is more than the cost of fuel itself. But regardless of how the roads are
paid for, or whether, you drive on them in your gas or electric car, or ride in a self-driving
car. The Chinese economy and quality of life of its people will be significantly better
thanks to this ambitious project. It seems the whole country is embracing the Chinese
saying, “Lutong Caiton,” wealth follows the extension of motorways. India faces one of the most challenging situations
in the world. It has 1.2 billion people spread over a vast country. More than 350 million
of whom will move into cities in the coming decade, which means some 500 new urban centers
will need to be built from scratch. And even though India’s sheer size means that its
economy ranks third in the world in purchasing power, overall, it’s relatively poor and
underdeveloped. It’s also young. The average Indian is just 27 years old, compared to the
average American, who’s a decade older. This means that most of the population is
about to hit their prime working years—these are all people who need jobs to be created
now. That’s why the government is embarking on the largest infrastructure project in Indian
history: the $90 billion Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, whose backbone will be a 920 mile
long dedicated freight corridor, basically a set of multiple rail lines that will exist
solely to move goods from the factories where they are produced to the sea and airports
where they can be exported to market. It’s designed to cut the logistical costs of manufacturing
goods to make India the cheapest place in the world for a company to build its stuff
and - in turn - triple the amount of merchandise it exports from 2010 levels by 2017. Japan
is the major partner behind the project because the Japanese economy is based on a technology
industry that needs to build its products at the most competitive rates in the world.
The overall effort will include a 4,000 MW power plant, and at least three brand new
seaports and six airports. And all along the route, 24 new cities will spring up with each
aiming to be superior to any existing Indian city in terms of the quality of infrastructure,
planning, management, and services offered. With natural resources scarce - and climate
change a concern of any good urban planner - the use of technology has been stressed
to make sure this boom will be as clean and sustainable as possible. Roads are also a
major part of the plan with thousands of miles of expressways planned to ease congestion.
The project is a priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who entered office in 2014
after leading his BJP party to a dominating win in the 2014 election, giving him a mandate
to enact his vision for making India a global manufacturing superpower. It seems the Indians
are attempting to follow a similar blueprint for success the Chinese put into action over
the last 40 years. With a population nearly as big, Indians are rightly asking, why not
us? If you were playing Sim City, you’d want
to go about building your metropolis the same way the Saudi’s have with King Abdullah
Economic City. And just like other great leaders of men, you’d probably name it after yourself
too, which is exactly what King Abdullah did. You’d also focus on job-creating infrastructure
and a dream university to attract the best and brightest. Saudi Arabia is the world’s
dominant oil producer, and is a country that knows how to play the game. While its flashier
neighbors like Abu Dhabi and Dubai get all the publicity for their megaprojects, the
Kingdom is embarking on a far more ambitious project that’s focused squarely on creating
the most cohesive, well-planned city in the Arab world. The $100 billion enterprise on
the coast of the Red Sea is about an hour’s drive north of Jeddah, the second-largest
city in Saudi Arabia, and plans to expand into an area about the size of Washington
DC. That location is no coincidence, says Fahd Al Rasheed, the man who’s in charge
of growing King Abdullah Economic City - which we’re going to shorten to just its initials,
KAEC - “you’re talking about 24 percent of global trade going through the Red Sea,
and this is a trend that’s never been addressed by a Red Sea port.” That’s why KAEC’s
port is going to be massive, with an annual capacity of over ten million shipping containers,
which would make it one of the busiest ports in the world. So cargo is KAEC’s first major
transportation hub. The second is Haramain station, one of four stops on Saudi Arabia’s
planned high speed rail network that will connect the new megacity to Jeddah, Makkah,
and Madinah. This will bring thousands of visitors to KAEC right from it’s inception,
with officials hoping that some will naturally take jobs and stay there, fueling its expansion.
At first, the whole plan struggled to gain much traction with investors, “but,” says
Al Rasheed, “then we reoriented ourselves towards building that demand, creating that
support and it’s completely shifted. Now we have captive demand — all our apartments
are full and we have waiting lists for hundreds of people, literally.”
Part of that shift focused on KAEC’s Industrial Valley which is centered on a large petrochemical
plant and has more than 70 companies lining up to set up bases there.
And then there’s the cornerstone of any thriving city: a great university. Enter,
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology - which began instruction in 2009 with a staggering
$20 billion endowment, making it the third best-funded university in the world behind
Harvard and Yale. This capital injection has allowed it to lift off like a rocket in its
first five years. It’s recruited some of the best talent from over 60 countries around
the world--scientists who’ve carried the school to an eye-opening 99.9% research record
score. The research teams at King Tech are advancing many important fields like solar
cell technology and cancer therapy. It teaches in English and is the first mixed-gender university
in the Kingdom. Plus, with just 1200 postgraduates on an 8,900 acre campus, there’s plenty
of room to expand in every direction. With forty percent of Saudi Arabia’s citizens
under 15 years old, the plan is for the megacity - by itself - to create upwards of a million
jobs for all of those young people to grow into.
In the end, it may be true that Saudi Arabia would be a bone-dry desert wasteland without
it’s exploitation of the vast fields of black gold underneath it, but at least - in
the twilight of his life - King Abdullah is doing all he can to set his people - and the
rest of the world - on a slightly better path than the one they were on when he took over
just nine years ago in 2005. And if that’s his legacy, he deserves to have a city named
after him. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed this
video, and if you did, you’ll love our video profiling 10 promising renewable energy sources
of the future or our mini-doc on robotic armies and the militaries of the future. Make sure
to like this video to help it spread, it really helps us out. And hit that subscribe button
to stay up to date on all of our daily videos.
The projects look cool, but I seriously doubt the majority of them will happen like this.
Spoiler Alert: He forgives King Abdullah at the end.
Awesome! I didn't know about most of these.
magnetic charges????????????
grrrrrr......
The title made me think of this, "Mega blocks. Mega highways. Mega City One. Convulsing. Choking. Breaking under its own weight. Citizens in fear of the street. The gun. The gang. Only one thing fighting for order in the chaos: the men and women of the Hall of Justice. Juries. Executioners. Judges."
Who wants to live next to an airport?
Makes me want to play OPENTDD now.
At the 2 minute mark... the guys in Dubai, are they seriously considering building a mega Eiffel Tower?
As a Parisian, I know there are tons of replicas here and there, but at least they're considerably smaller, and thus evoke rather a homage more than anything else. If Dubai does this it would piss me off. They can build a similar steel structure with a different design for all I care, but the Eiffel Tower is Paris goddammit. Build something original! Dubai is trying so hard, everything is just artificial with no culture. I wonder how long the hype will last if this goes on.
China IMO is such a piece of shit irresponsible country. Don't they give any forethought to how they're going to sustain their massive growth. No, Fuck it just keep selling cars until we have 60 mile long traffic jams.