10+ Stunning Old Famous Structures Under Construction Pictures

1. Colosseum in Rome way back in 1846

2. Hoover dam during construction

3. Golden Gate Bridge During Construction

4. Subway Tunnel being Constructed in UK mid 18s

5. All Female Survey Team working In UK

6. Construction of Eiffle Tower

7. Construction of Aswan Dam around 1899 in Egypt

8. Statue of liberty under construction assembled in France before shiped to united states

9. Queensboro Bridge under construction 1907

10. Nelson Column Under construction in April 1844 UK

11. tower bridge under construction

12. Under construction Manhattan Bridge Washington

13. Under construction Manhattan Bridge Washington

15+ Amazing Architectural Designs of the World

By allowing free your creativity and passion, these architects were able to create wonderful architectural structures that inspire genuine admiration.

1. Building Infosys. Hinjewadi, Pune Province. India

The headquarters of Infosys in India, is a beautiful building of high technology. The whole structure looks like an aircraft and this illusion is created by the way: a structure ellipsoid with tilted about 10 degrees angle.

The building was the first occupant of the IT park calling Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park. In this park, there are about 20 software companies like Mindtree, Tata Technologies, Tech Machindra and CISCO.
The Infosys building is definitely the best. It was built based on the designs of architect Hafeez Contractor an important and respected Indian architect known for his commitment to "green" designs. The building is a combination of steel, glass and aluminum.



2. Milwaukee Art Museum. Lake Michigan, Milwaukee. Wisconsin

The Milwaukee Art Museum is a spectacular building that is divided into 3 parts: the Centre for the memory of the war, and Cudahy Quadracci Pavilion gardens. It has over 30,000 square meters. Emulates vessels stroll by the lake and the building has in its design: mast, bow and a kind of candles.

It was designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, David Kahler and Eero Saarinen. The Quadracci Pavilion is the most impressive visually, built under the postmodern style according to the plans of Calatrava. The Windhover Hall structure is the main attraction, and has a glass roof 90 feet high. The new wing of the museum designed by Calatrava is a huge set of carbon fiber bows that adjust to modulate the entry of light and heat of the museum. The MAM is located on the water bridge in the great Lake Michigan.

3. Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. Hilversum, Netherlands

The overall effect of the building is fascinating: colorful and translucent glass panels, very cheerful, luxurious and opulent. The building was designed by Neutelings Riedijk Architects, and has 5 underground levels and as many on the ground. The underground levels contain files and materials while the top is where the media museum open to visitors is.

The glass panels on the facade is very characteristic of a collage of famous paintings and photos of Dutch films and television series.

4. Denver Art Museum. Denver, United States.

The building was started in early 1948, when the designer Burnham Hoyt designed what became known as the Schleier Gallery. Over the years, they have made numerous extensions as the museum needs more space to store your treasures. Two of the most famous annexations were Frederick C. Hamilton Building and the North Building.

The Frederic C. Hamilton was designer by architect Daniel Liebeskind, and design resembles the beautiful peaks of the Rocky Mountains and all types of typical geometric formations geology Denver. The entire building was coated titanium huge panels according to the architect: "reflect the sunshine of Colorado".



5. Federation Square. Melbourne, Australia

The Plaza de la Federation (Federation Square) is the second tourist attraction of the city after the Crown Casino. The process of construction of the plaza was great controversy even though today is one of the most admired structures in the world.

The building is constructed as deconstructionism, offering a sense of fragmentation and a minimalist aesthetic. The facades are covered by glass and slabs of sandstone, zinc and metal frames which conformed interesting geometric patterns. Project designers were members of Lab Architecture Studio with teacher Donald Bates and Peter Davidson to head with local firm Bates Smart.



6. La Tete au Carre. Nice. France

La Tete au carre is a very visual building, which is the main eca a library, located in the heart of Nice, France. It is the first sculpture inhabited world, and is constructed entirely of aluminum. The famous sculptor and painter Sacha Sosno with losarquitectos Yves Bayard and Francis Chapuis were the creators. The literal translation of Tete au Carre's "Thinking inside the box". Inside the head are 3 floors of the full library of digital and paper documents and books. The building is 26 meters high and is one of the most interesting buildings-sculpture modern world.

7. Biosphere Montreal. Montreal, Canada

Montreal Biosphere is a museum dedicated entirely to the environment. The designer of this particular structure was the architect Richard Buckminster Fuller. The structure is 61 meters high and the diameter of the sphere is 78 meters. The main frame is made of steel tubes and use around 1900 acrylic panels for facades. Today the area serves as a location for numerous interactive exhibitions for children and many other cultural and entertainment programs for all ages.

8. Building Peter B Lewis. Cleveland. USA

This building was designed by famed architect Frank Gehry and is now the headquarters of the Weatherhead School of Management. The building has curved lines and although it looks strange is a very important artwork in the city of Cleveland.


The structure was named after the President of Progressive Insurance, an insurance company donated $ 37 million to build. The total cost was 62 million and is almost 152,000 square meters.



The style and structure is clearly reminiscent of the Guggenheim Museum in Spain which was also built by the master of pop Frank Gehry architecture.

9. Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Elshtaby. Egypt.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is one of the most famous cultural centers of the world, located in the city of Elshtaby in Egypt. The building. The construction style meets contemporary eipcio, simulating shimmering under the sun disk. The library can accommodate 8 million books, the main reading room is huge (70,000 m2) and has 11 levels cascading harmoniously. In the outer walls can be seen calligraphic inscriptions on the granite wall and ceiling of the reading room is 32 feet high.


Architects and planners were professionals and Snøhetta Hamza Associates study. The library and cultural center received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004. It occupies the same place as the ancient library of Alexandria.





Registration Bibliotheca Alexandrina



10. House dome. Pensacola Beach. Florida. USA

This structure is a dome (or cupola) geodesic that besides being extremely comfortable, very strong and resistant to all weather conditions. From inside the guests have an ocean view, since being a spherical structure can have an original panoramic view. The architect who built it is Bob Bissett.





11. Parc Guell. Barcelona. Spain

This park is full of wonderful pieces of architecture of Antonio Gaudi. It is located in Barcelona and was built between 1900 and 1914. Some of the most remarkable pieces of this park include admission, which gives the feeling that one enters a castle. Just as the colorful dragon-shaped fountain.

12. Honeycomb. Jerusalem. Israel.

This residential building has broken all the rules of traditional architecture. It was built in 1970 based on the plans of architect Zvi Hecker for the National Ministry of Housing wanted a design that would break with the architectural patterns of the city.

Source: architectural designs / arkiplus.com

'A Casa do Penedo, "the House of Stone," Fafe mountains, northern Portugal'

Constructed between four giant stones and linked with a concrete mix, the house is rumored to be inspired by the popular American Flintstones cartoon. Although quite unusual, the prehistoric-looking residence does feature some traditional components such as windows, a front door, and even a shingled roof. As you might expect, the house’s design attracts thousands of tourists each year.

Due to the recent interest generated by the house and its remote location, Casa do Penedo has been the subject of robbery attempts and vandalism in recent years. Now, the house is equipped with bullet-proof windows and a steel door. Inside, however, the home is said to be quite cozy, with stone furniture, stairs, and railings made of logs.

Concept of Reinforced Earth

Reinforcement in the form of steel or synthetic strips called geo-strips are placed within an embankment, containing soil in various layers compacted mechanically; the granular material of embankment is linked by means of friction. The embankment becomes a self supporting structure, such a structure is called reinforced earth structure.

Earth Reinforced with Geo-strips and Reinforced Earth Panels

Concept

Construction of reinforced earth is a very simple process. The principle concept of reinforced earth is similar to that of a reinforced concrete that contains steel, aggregates and fines. In reinforcing earth process we reinforce the earth by means of steel or synthetic geo-strips.

Stresses that are generated within the embankment is transferred and resisted by these reinforcing strips. 

Concept of Reinforced Earth Works (REW)

History

Constructions using these techniques are known to have existed in the 5th and 4th millenniums B.C. Since early civilizations, man has attempted to use soil with other materials to enable it for being used for his necessities. Typical early use includes us of branches of tree etc. to support tracks over marshy areas and to build hutments. Structures are also built by insects and birds using mud and leaves.  These are all familiar sights even today. This kind of principle is also used in building parts of Great Wall of China and the Babylonian Ziggurats i.e. temples.

Great Wall of China

In the 19th Century Passel used tree branches to reinforce back fills in order to reduce the earth pressure and thereby economize the retaining walls. 

Textile material was perhaps first used in road construction in south Carolina in the early 1930s. The first use of a woven synthetic fabrics for erosion control was made in 1958 by Barrett.

Construction

Reinforced earth system consists of following items;

a) Facing or the skin of the embankment
b) Reinforcing geo-synthetic strips
c) Soil in lifts or layers

During the construction phase we first do a lean within the boundary of embankment upon which the reinforced earth panels or skin of the reinforcement is placed. In this boundary of panels we place the selected material containing fines and gravels in lifts or layers. Each lift is mechanically stabilized by using a roller. We in this case don’t use sheep foot roller or vibratory roller, we use simple steel drum roller to do the compaction as well as ensuring stability of the structure.

The skin or reinforced earth panels have a path or passage for geo-synthetic strips which is called connectors mostly they are in C shape so they are called C-Connectors.

A bridge Abutment

These strips after passing through C-Connector is jointed with a reinforced steel bars placed at center in a specified distance. With each lift the process repeats and as a result we get a well compacted reinforced earth embankment. Water sealant foam is applied between each panels to ensure it as a water tight structure.

Advantages

Following are some of few positivity in Reinforced Earth Works

Reinforced Earth Panels Facing

a) Easy Placement

Construction is repetitive and simple, panels, strips, granular fill and then compaction

b) Positive Connection

Galvanized reinforcing strips are connected to concrete panels with structural bolts

c)    Engineered Backfill

Alternating layer of reinforcing strips and backfill are applied and compacted.

d)   Structural Facing

TerraClass facing panels are easily handled by placement crew.

India to build world's highest railway bridge Chenab Bridge in Jammu Kashmir

You might have travelled above 1000 feet in aero-plane but you must not have travelled at that much height with a Railcar, But Indian engineers are ready to lift such a bulky weighty weighing car of iron to a height 35 meters more than that of Eiffel Tower.

"The Project worth more than 90 million is being handled by the Railway Corporation. It includes more than 25 thousands tones of steel."

Background of the Project

Currently Guizhou Province of China is enjoying the world’s tallest railway bridge which stands over Beipanjiang River but despondently this record is about to break in 2016 as its height of 275 meters is by no means near to 359 meters which is the expected height of arch-shaped steel railway bridge.

Steel cranes in Operation (AFP Photo/Prakash Singh)

The northern areas of Jammu and Kashmir State hosts spectacular mountainous region and at such a height the railcar can’t cross the Chenab River, but thanks to Civil Engineering of newest era that gave the principles to rule the world.

Excavator being Operated (AFP Photo/Prakash Singh)

According to a local News agency this bridge is expected to be ready by December 2016. The steel structure has obviously a poor vibrating dampness  characteristics, for this reason safety and precautions have been made to avoid any devastating earthquake and wind speeds.

Project currently in development stages

The Project worth more than 90 million is being handled by the Railway Corporation. It includes more than 25 thousands tones of steel. Due to the difficult typography of the area few of the tones has to be transported by Helicopters.

Project Purpose

The Project named as Chenab Bridge spanning Chenab River between Bakki and Kauri, in Reasi Distric of Jammu and Kashmir. Due to questions on its safety and stability the project had been stopped in 2008 after which it is restarted in 2010 due to assurance and deep model study of the project.

Huge cranes (AFP Photo/Prakash Singh)

This highest railway bridge in World would make you scarier than riding the roller coaster that will bring everything eaten. :D

So just wait and see

Video of the Project

Here is a AFP Official Video of the World's Tallest Railway Bridge

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Busan-Geoje fixed link Deepest sea highway NatGeo Documentary Watch / Download

Your next vacation may have spent in a paradise; you’ve never heard of, you’ll just need a way to get there. Here is the catch!, that way has to go underwater, it would become the deepest immersed highway on earth, and you might also have to construct couple of bridges, and did we mention typhoons.

You must have travelled across oceans with boats and ships and even several hundreds of kilometer with it, but you must not have travelled across the ocean via your own private luxurious car. But now you can, Yeah!. Thanks to the civil engineering of twenty ten (2010) that makes it able for you to introduce such a unique, inspiration and sophisticated project.

Busan-Goje roadway access - and through sea access

Background of Busan-Goje Deepest Immersed Highway 

Busan the 2nd largest city of South Korea with the population of over 4.2 million people. It is South Korea’s biggest port and 5th busiest port in the world is bidding for 2020 Summer Olympics but the problem with Busan was overcrowded place having no room what so ever for anyone and thus the athletes will not come and thus Busan will not get the bid. Any how the town-planners have just find the solution by the name Goje, the island of eye-catching sceneries.

Tunnels constructed for the project

Why Busan-Goje Fixed Link?

The problem with Goje is to get in there. By sea Goje lies only 8km from Busan, but by road its 140 km, and thus the Busan-Goje fixed link was proposed. The Busan-Goje fixed link is an 8.2 KM bridge-tunnel fixed link. A four lane highway that runs nearly 50 meter beneath the sea then it leaves to two colossal cable stayed bridges, long together more than 80 football pitches. One of the biggest infrastructure projects of the world. Plunging 48 km below sea level, the link is now the deepest immersed roadway in the world.

Colossal Bridges 

About Busan-Goje fixed link

The fixed link will save 300 million US dollars in costs related to traffic delays from longer route.The tunnel built is composed of 18 segments, each as long as two football pitches and each as heavy as an aircraft carrier, wide enough to carry two lanes of traffic each direction with an access tunnel in between.

Tongyeong - The place of building tunnels

About the Companies who build Busan-Goje Deepest immersed highway

The companies includes developers, contractors and consultants. The lead contractor is Daewoo Engineering & Construction, Co. Designers includes COWI A/S from Denmark, Halcrow Group from UK, Tunnel Engineering consultants from Netherlands, Pihl and Son from Denmark, Arcadis from US and Ben C. Gerwick from USA.

NatGeo MegaStructures Documentary on Deep Sea Highway - Busan-Goje fixed link 

Watch NatGeo Documentary on Deep Sea Highway

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Download Megastructure Documentary on Mega BreakDown Yankee Stadium

Located in Bronx, an area of New York City, New York Yankee Stadium was built and opened in April 18, 1923. It exists there as the home ballpark of the New York Yankees, one of the city’s Major League Baseball franchises, from 1923 to 1973.

It is a historic and an fans are emotionally attached to it. The stadium has hosted several games during its 85 year history. The stadium has a significant attachment with  Babe Ruth, the legendary baseball superstar whose prime years coincided with the stadium’s opening and the beginning of the Yankees’ winning history.

Mega BreakDown Yankee Stadium

About the Video on Yankee Stadium

This video is the first video on series of civil engineering videos and documentaries.

It is a episode of series called  “Megastructures” that remained live on National Geographic Channel.  

This video as already stated in introduction is about the demolition of old Yankees Stadium starting from the very first removal of the grass to the seats and then to the demolition of the whole structure.


This demolition is not just a demolition literally it’s been a giant with removal of 50,000 seats along with 9200 square meter of grass, 50,000 ton of concrete but not just this. It is being surrounded by hundreds of pedestrians and fans roaming here and there and a very delicate and one of the busiest subways there in the city meters away from it. Thus there are some challenges for you engineering expertise.

Free Watch Megastructure Series "Yankee Stadium Domolition"

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Stunning Rotating 7 Story Sharifiha House in Tehran Must to watch - Interesting Buildings

Innovation and novelty in construction is a continuous process having no end. With the development and advancement in scientific knowledge the allied and applied engineering drive benefits from that. One such example is being seen in Tehran, the Capital of Iran where an architect’s company named “NextOffice” have made an outclass multistory luxurious house titled “Sharifi-ha” with 3 floors pivoted on its base with ability to rotate at 90 degrees.

Sharifi-ha House a rotating house in Iran - Tehran

Besides this feature of rotating elements the building houses too many luxurious elements that makes it a majestic and highly unusual house. The rotating portions allow the building to completely change its outlook and its function.


The Sharifi-ha house is a seven story building showing the practical usage of two-dimensional space as a three dimensional space. Out of the seven stories three stories have that pivoting and rotating feature which allows them to rotate out 90 degrees just by a touch of a button.


The idea behind this rotating feature was to allow the occupants to change their space and arrangement according to the climate. The ingenious design is all motorized, and the movement of the rotating volumes includes the dispatch of necessary stairs, handrails, and safety features to make the newly-defined spaces safe and livable.


Each of the moving volumes can be rotated separately, allowing the residents to customize their living space in a way that no other home does. The spatial transformations are, in a way, a nod to traditional Iranian homes which feature different living spaces for summer and for winter. The Sharifi-ha House just does it in a spectacularly modern way.



The below-ground levels of the home contain the gym, pool and other recreational facilities. The ground floor houses parking facilities and staff quarters. The higher floors contain communal areas, bedrooms, bathrooms and plenty of space for lounging and visiting. The incredible home was completed in 2013 and is a testament to the architectural firm’s skill in designing a highly complex but still exceedingly lovely abode for some very lucky

Keywords for the post

Interesting civil engineering buildings, buildings by NextOffice, Next Office buildings, Sharifi-ha house, Sharifi-ha Iran, Iran new Buildings, Iran new projects, Tehran Buildings, Tehran New Projects, innovative building ideas, innovative construction, new construction techniques, new construction methods, rotating house, rotating building

From Editor's Desk

Innovation is for sure a very outgoing and very unique process in every field and every field of education. This building in Tehran, Iran is a very unique from various point of you. You must have to visit Sharifi-ha House. 

 

First ever Strange Invisible House build - Interesting Construction

Sometimes for builders and architects it is a challenging phase to not ruin the natural scenes and beauty of nature. The lush green meadows and high rise mountains with tall sky-kissing trees surrounded by bushes have a pleasant effect on your health your mood and your living style.

Over the recent past Green buildings and green technology have taken a trending part in construction and building. The architects and civil and structural engineers are now demanded to build nature constructive nature preservative buildings that are energy efficient and are environmental friendly.

The diversity of nature had been affected very badly by the construction industry but to limit its devastation the engineers and construction professionals are now on track.

 One such story has been reported in Glasgow's Strathclyde University where architecture students have build a unique cabin that blends itself with the surrounding nature.  This building is designed to blend in perfectly with Scotland's Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.

The cabin is constructed using wood structure covered by mirror that gives different looks when seen from different angles and directions and almost disappear when seen from distant.
Here are some of the views;

Photographs courtesy of Strathclyde University.

What is Liquidated damages? What are its clauses

Monetary compensation for a loss, detriment, or injury to a person or a person's rights or property, awarded by a court judgment or by a contract stipulation regarding violation of contract.

Definition

Cash compensation, agreed to by signed, written contract for breach of contract, payable to the aggrieved party. {Law Dictionary: (Black's Law Dictionary}

Generally, contracts that involve the exchange of money or the promise of performance have a liquidated damages stipulation. The purpose of this stipulation is to establish a predetermined sum that must be paid if a party fails to perform as promised.

Conditions when Liquidated damages are imposed:

Damages can be liquidated in a contract only if
1)    First, the amount of the damages identified must roughly approximate the damages likely to fall upon the party seeking the benefit of the term.

2)        Second, the damages must be sufficiently uncertain at the time the contract is made that such a clause will likely save both parties the future difficulty of estimating damages.

Difference between liquidated damages and un-liquidated damages (penalty)

At common law, a liquidated damages clause will not be enforced if its purpose is to punish the wrongdoer/party in breach rather than to compensate the injured party (in which case it is referred to as a penal or penalty clause).

A penalty will be imposed if the loss or damage is reasonably certain if it’s uncertain then liquidated damages clause will be imposed.

Examples of liquidated damage

For example, suppose Saad Iqbal agrees to lease a store-front to Zubair Saleem, from which Zubair intends to sell jewelry. If Saad breaches the contract by refusing to lease the store-front at the appointed time, it will be difficult to determine what profits Zubair will have lost because the success of newly created small businesses is highly uncertain. This, therefore, would be an appropriate circumstance for Zubair to insist upon a liquidated damages clause in case Saad fails to perform.

Undisclosed source code has value as a trade secret. Openly publishing the source code destroys the trade secret value. The trade secret value of source code is difficult or impossible to prove. There is no open market for "secret source code".

In the case of construction contracts, courts have occasionally refused to enforce liquidated damages provisions when both parties have contributed to the overall delay of the project.

Now You might want to live in a boat if so? Here is how you can!

Floating Homes (House Boat) that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. These types of Homes are constructed on the sea shore or near lakes and places near the threatening shore line..

Importance of Floating Homes

These Homes are gateway to modern living system These Homes can fulfill our desire of living in Marine. A House that can survive the floodwater that generated by storm and heavy rainfall. Instead of having to repair homes due to flood damage each year ,the single initial cost of purchasing the home could easily minimal the damage.
We can enjoy boating, fishing, swimming and all other water activities from our home. People can also generate their electricity need. There is no need to buy a land for your home you can easily move to any shore. Floating homes (house boat) is getting more importance in different part of world especially in UK and USA. In different areas of UK and USA where hurricanes flooding have cause much destruction government have planned to built there floating homes.

Floating Homes

Floating Home Construction Process
 A Floating Foundation is the foundation of a home that does not use footings .Foundation of Floating Home made up of different layer of light plastic foam supporting the concrete allow it to float in a same way a boat would do. The foam is called EPS that is used for the bases of these homes is supported by water; which makes it virtually unsinkable.EPS(expanded polystyrene)  consists of variety of “pearls” or a closed cell structure, which consist of approximately 98% air this accounts for buoyancy. Because of potential degradation due to chemicals and insects ;the foam is covered with glass reinforced concrete and polyurea.  . The modified polystyrene is inserted in multiple layer in between stratums of composite concrete and divided into beam like modulus that can easily be assembled into a bigger floating structure a ‘ a bit like buildings blocks’. The modulus are arranged in a floating grid into which concrete is cast. Reinforcement is used to prevent the structure from cracking. Floating foundation can be a floating barge or set of pontoons. Stability has to be considered. The house and barge/pontoon arrangement must maintain the center of gravity below the center of buoyancy not only under all conditions when moored. The larger the floating foundation, the more stable the structure will be. Floating structure can be placed on steel pillars or hollow concrete body as shown in above fig

What are floating Homes

Types Of Floating Homes

Floating Homes can be anchored to dock or move with rise of water level of sea, lake or river. Floating home in anchored with Mooring post to deck that it can not be move. With respect to proofing Floating Homes are of two types

Wet flood-proofing

 The aim of wet flood proofing is to allow water to pass through the lower level of the house in a controlled manner. In this case, the man inhabitable levels are situated above the BFE (Base flood elevation ). Interior and exterior hydraulic pressure are the same when water is allowed through the sub-BFE parts of the house which reduce damage to the structural foundation. The parts of the house below the BFE should be resistant to water and to be situated at higher levels.

DRY flood-proofing

The aim of dry flood-proofing in contrast with wet flood proofing is protecting the house against flood without allowing water to penetrate the house.The option available to watertight the house include enclosure, sealants, membranes and coatings.Windows and door should be made especially watertight by shields or panel closure. One way valves are applicable to prevent water entering the house. A new dry flood-proofing system is the Floodskirt , comprising of a flexible skirt extending out of a glass fibre duct in the ground. In a crisis, the skirt can be attached onto hooks that keep it fastened to the wall. Zips prevent the passing. A floating home can rise up to 18 feet. According to design  floating homes are manufactured in different design like curved shape , boat form etc.

Conclusion

Climate change is redefining the rules by which we live and at a palace we never expected. Because of rising  sea level, several areas of the globe are in danger of vanishing from the map and also several areas are facing extreme mass destruction by flooding. So the society must adapt and maybe start living in floating houses because it is best defense system against flooding. In Pakistan  flood had create much mass destruction in past few years especially (2010,2012,13).Many people died and thousand of house float in the flood. For preventing areas of Pakistan from flooding floating houses is a best option of defense . Floating homes are best coping system against flood in Pakistan and other countries of world .Dutch architect has started number of floating homes in their countries to make a new trend of housing system . And these floating homes are getting popular day by day in Holland and UK, USA. Now its time for Pakistan government to overlook on this solution Of Coping with Flood.

Now You can Land Airplanes in the Sea - Kansai International Airport Japan

Japan, the land of rising sun was advancing with technology at a fast rate after World War II, Its economy was on the verge of stabilization. But here the question arises where do you put a plane in a space that run out of space? The Japanese have found its answer you can make the airplane to as well as it flies. In Japan at that time the largest international airport was in Tokyo; the middle of the island. Business owners had to ship their goods hundreds of miles so they could be exported out of the country. This was both costly and time – consuming.

Osaka was the ancient capital of Japan and the former playground for the last samurai. The home of 3 millions Japanese, a new energy in Osaka has propelled this place to become the commercial and industrial center of western Japan. But in order to compete with their big sister Tokyo – Osaka needed to find a way to bring in more people with a Yen for Big business. The solution that was devised “a much bigger airport – to open up the skies”

Building an international airport in Kansai region of Japan was developed in late 1960’s, but the owners of the land and angry farmers were opposing the idea and thus the idea of the project was forced to shut down. The Kansai region included the large cities of Kobe and Osaka, advancement in these two cities forced the city designers to find a solution as to where to put an airport. The majority of land in Kansai region is being filled by the inhabitants and the only practical solution to this problem was to build it on water.

SUBSURFACE INVESTIGATION

First and foremost important step related to any geotechnical application is to gather information about the soil as much as we can. For a task the scale of Kansai, an extensive investigation was necessary to characterize the subsurface since very little was known about the soil conditions below the bay,

Fig 1 Bore Holes for Geo-tech investigation

Scientists have used large barrages and rigs, to let engineers to be able to bore deep into the seabed and gather information about the type of soil they would be resting their airport on. The findings of the geotechnical investigation was as under; the top 60 feet of the clay was soft-alluvial clay called Holocene layer which has hardness roughly equivalent to that of toy clay, this layer had loosely placed sediment. But that was not much problem for the engineers as they had much experience in building on such similar deposits off the shore of the bay and had means to control it. The problem which they had about to face was below that alluvial clay layer was old, diluvial deposit of stiff clay,  which had never been build on before.

Fig. 2 Subsurface profile of the Kansai Airport Foundation

Main Construction Process

Engineers have divided the main construction into three different stages

(i)                 Remediation of the seabed

(ii)               Placement of seawall

(iii)             fill

Sea bed remediation

The problem that was faced by geo-tech engineers here was settlement, as the underlying soil was clay. As we know that clay composed of very small soil particles having pores in them, these pores on application of load can be re-arranged for an unknown time, and more over this process of consolidation is very slow, but has a significant effect on the working of the structure.

In the case of the Kansai Airport, the upper alluvial layer was highly compressible and is impermeable as well, thus engineers have used a technique called sand draining method, approximately one million sand columns were inserted into the top layer of the bay to improve drainage conditions. This allows the water to flow horizontally to a column and then exit relatively quickly in a vertical direction because the sand has high permeability. The sand columns not only allows the water to drain quickly to avoid long term settlement but also strengthens the soil during construction.

Fig 3 : Sand Draining Technique to Increase settlement Rate of consolidating clays

Seawall

After improving the sub-surface of the bay the scientists have to fight with the high speed tides of the sea, because if these high velocity waves can’t let the inhabitants to live near the sea how can these waves allow the airplanes to live within the sea; for fighting this problem they have devised a seawall, special “tripod” blocks were used on the seaward side to disspiate the energy of any harsh waves. These 2 ton blocks slowly arose from the seabed creating a ring of concrete 40 ft above sea level.

Fig 4: typical cross-section of the seawall

Fig 5 : Complete seawall

Fill:

Once the seawall was completed, workers started on the body of the island, The source of their fill material, which consists of different grades of sand, gravel and rock, was from three nearby mountains. Trucks transported from the borrow site to the nearby ships which shipped it three miles to the site. It almost took four years to fill such a land and it took 750 million cubic feet of fill, three mountaintops had disappeared.

To tackle with the problem of settlement, the first question that was put forward to the scientists was How much the island would ultimately settle. By using their knowledge of soil mechanics they have calculated the ultimate settlement of the soil to be between 19 and 25 feet. Interestingly enough, the airport was designed for an island that would settle only 19 feet. By the time the island was completed in 1990, it had already settled 27 feet and was continuing at a rate of 2 inches per month. This prompted designers to put an extra ten feet of fill on top to compensate for the difference, adding even more stress to the seabed.

The deep clay layer was not a uniform or homogeneous layer, it has sand layers within its mass and engineers believed that these sand layers will allow the water to drain quickly themselves but care full study shows that among these continuous sand layers there are a few discontinuous sand layers which doesn’t allow the water to drain and thus there comes the problem of differential settlement.

To encounter the differential settlement between island and the terminal, engineers have lined the basement of the terminal with a quarter of a million tons of iron ore. Without iron ore, the terminal weight would be less and the remaining island would sink and settles thus the terminal might fail thus the additional weight of the iron ore beneath the terminal allows the terminal to settle at approximately the same rate as the rest of the island.

The runways were paved specifically with asphalt and not the concrete reason being that if some patch holes appears they could be paved easily with asphalt and concrete could fail in this case easily. The terminal was build on 900 columns, the height of these columns was controlled by a hydraulic jack and the settlement of these columns was computer monitored thus if some differential settlement might be observed the hydraulic jacks come in place to counter that settlement. Once the jacks were removed steel plates were slid under the columns.

Earthquakes and other Natural Disasters:

Engineers have used rocks when they were filling within the seawalls as a fill, inclusion of these rocks had some objective and that was to absorb any earthquake shaking activity and that was proved fruitful in the 1995 earthquake when after 15 years the terminal was opened an earthquake rocked the Osaka Bay area in early morning. Kansai Airport was just 18 miles from the epicenter and the officials were surprised to see the results of minimal damage to the island. With the exception of a few cracks within the sidewalks the terminal was fully in perfect condition.

References

·         Kansai International Airport Land Development Company, Kald Information Center: URL: < http://www.kald.co.jp/index-e.html>

·         Takenaka Corporation, Modification Method for Differential Settlement: URL: <http://www.takenaka.co.jp/takenaka_e/quake_e/fudo/fudo.htm>

·         The Learning Channel, “Super Structures of the World: Kansai International Airport”, Original Broadcast, 1999.

·         Kansai International Airport “Mega Structure” Series on National Geographic Channel.