Extreme Engineering

by **bste_lax** on Sun Jun 18, 2006 5:01 pm

Anyone watch this show on the Discovery Channel? I have caught two recent episodes late at night which have spawned on interest. I have a feeling this is right up Brent's alley.

The first one, I only caught the end of it, was about the new stadium they are building in Glendale, Arizona for the Cardinals which has a retractable playing field.

But the one which really got me interested was the Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel or SMART Tunnel.

It is pretty nuts and sort of hard to explain but the gist of it is that the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia has problems with flooding so they are making this tunnel which will run under the city which has 3 levels. The bottom level will be a storm tunnel for the water while the top two levels will be a tollway to help out traffic but if the flooding is that bad, it can shut down the tollway and make the whole thing for water.

They are still in the process of making it and that alone was interesting as they have these two drills/machines that are the size of a 10+ story building on its side which drill out the path as well as put up the concrete walls, sort of 2 in 1 machine.

The one thing I found odd is that the tunnel can't be a straight path as land owning laws in Malaysia say if you own the land, you own the ground beneath as well (all the way to the center of the Earth apparently) so they have to dig out this tunnel to follow the highway which makes the project that much more difficult.

Anyways, I recommend watching this show when it is on.

**Sponsor**

by **Brent Burns** on Sun Jun 18, 2006 7:56 pm

Hmm.. that sounds interesting. I will have to check the TV listings and find out when I can catch those segments on Discovery Channel. BTW, I know that my sister will be going to KL (Kuala Lumpar), and I will have to ask her about that project. That may happen in a few weeks when she gets back to the mainland.

With that kind of project, I know it can be expensive, but would that be a good idea for football, soccer, lacrosse, etc.?? I know there are already places that have that kind of drainage for those kinds of fields.

by **Gregg Pathiakis** on Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:17 pm

Brent Burns wrote:Hmm.. that sounds interesting. I will have to check the TV listings and find out when I can catch those segments on Discovery Channel. BTW, I know that my sister will be going to KL (Kuala Lumpar), and I will have to ask her about that project. That may happen in a few weeks when she gets back to the mainland.

With that kind of project, I know it can be expensive, but would that be a good idea for football, soccer, lacrosse, etc.?? I know there are already places that have that kind of drainage for those kinds of fields.

I love this show. I never catch it when it's on live, but I watch it OnDemand all the time. Never seen an episode I didn't find intriguing. One of my favorites was the city of hanging skyscrapers (for lack of a better description) they are building in Asia (can't remember what city and country). Also liked the episode on the expanding of the Panama Canal.

by **Brent Burns** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:08 pm

You can check this out at:

http://www.smarttunnel.com.my

It is really a very interesting site. Of course, it requires Flash Player and Adobe, and I am sure most of you all already have that.

by **StrykerFSU** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:39 pm

I guess the Malaysians aren't familiar with The Big Dig.

by **Brent Burns** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:52 pm

StrykerFSU wrote:I guess the Malaysians aren't familiar with The Big Dig.

That would be a good discussion on differentiating KL's SMART Tunnel and Boston's Big Dig. Would Gregg Pathiakis chime in at some point?

Are there still problems with the Big Dig?

by **Brent Burns** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:34 pm

Gregg Pathiakis wrote:
Brent Burns wrote:Hmm.. that sounds interesting. I will have to check the TV listings and find out when I can catch those segments on Discovery Channel. BTW, I know that my sister will be going to KL (Kuala Lumpar), and I will have to ask her about that project. That may happen in a few weeks when she gets back to the mainland.

With that kind of project, I know it can be expensive, but would that be a good idea for football, soccer, lacrosse, etc.?? I know there are already places that have that kind of drainage for those kinds of fields.

I love this show. I never catch it when it's on live, but I watch it OnDemand all the time. Never seen an episode I didn't find intriguing. One of my favorites was the city of hanging skyscrapers (for lack of a better description) they are building in Asia (can't remember what city and country). Also liked the episode on the expanding of the Panama Canal.

Gregg, I am not sure if the picture below is what you are referring to city of hanging skyscrapers (that is Petronas Tower 2 below):

Kubala Lumpur has a lot of skyscrapers including one very, very tall tower.

by **Brent Burns** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:36 pm

One more piece about SMART Travel, and it appears that The Big Dig and SMART Travel may have something in common- the folks who were involved in those tunneling projects is Mott McDonald. I believe the URL is
http://www.mottmac.com

The dual purpose of SMART Travel is shown as:

by **Gregg Pathiakis** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:43 pm

Brent Burns wrote:Gregg, I am not sure if the picture below is what you are referring to city of hanging skyscrapers (that is Petronas Tower 2 below):

Kubala Lumpur has a lot of skyscrapers including one very, very tall tower.

No, these skyscrapers literally hang. I found an interactive tour of this city-in-a-city (it's actually Tokyo, Japan). Look here to see it: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/en ... ctive.html

by **Gregg Pathiakis** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:47 pm

Brent Burns wrote:
StrykerFSU wrote:I guess the Malaysians aren't familiar with The Big Dig.

That would be a good discussion on differentiating KL's SMART Tunnel and Boston's Big Dig. Would Gregg Pathiakis chime in at some point?

Are there still problems with the Big Dig?

I'd love to chime in on this. The Big Dig is very near completion now. I haven't been into Boston in a couple weeks, but from watching the news they have had their third Big Dig Completion celebration recently. I believe all that is left is work at ground level... clearing the land above the tunnell and building the Rose Kennedy Parks.

And, yes, the Big Dig has made commuting in and out of Boston a lot less of a hassle. Since the tunnell (recently named the Tip O'Niell Tunnell after the former Massachusetts congressman and Speaker of the House) has opened, the only traffic problem I have noticed was when they would close the whole highway down for 6 hours overnight to work on it. At the time, I was driving airport limos in and out of Boston and it was a nightmare.

by **Brent Burns** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 4:52 pm

No, these skyscrapers literally hang. I found an interactive tour of this city-in-a-city (it's actually Tokyo, Japan). Look here to see it: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/en ... ctive.html

Oy! That is really thinking out of a box with this concept. I am sure and hope those engineers have thought about typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis when doing that "city-in-a-city" design. I am not even sure I would want to work in that environment, yet it would be interesting to see from a perspective if I were in that area.

Thanks, Gregg for sharing that information with us.

by **cjwilhelmi** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:01 pm

Brent Burns wrote:
No, these skyscrapers literally hang. I found an interactive tour of this city-in-a-city (it's actually Tokyo, Japan). Look here to see it: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/en ... ctive.html

Oy! That is really thinking out of a box with this concept. I am sure and hope those engineers have thought about typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis when doing that "city-in-a-city" design. I am not even sure I would want to work in that environment, yet it would be interesting to see from a perspective if I were in that area.

Thanks, Gregg for sharing that information with us.

Click on big picture and then ring of fire and it says that they are designing it to withstand natural disasters.

by **UofMLaxGoalie11** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:38 pm

On a similar note, I watched the special on this one quite a while ago. Seems fairly interesting. It is quite literally a city on water. Note that to get a condo at the very point of the ship (called the ultimate apex) it would cost $9,136,600 with a monthly upkeep of $14,716. Once I get that kind of money, this will be at the top of the list.

http://www.freedomship.com/

by **Brent Burns** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 6:19 pm

SMART Tunnel, Freedom Ship, Hanging City are quite examples of extreme engineering! Quite mind-boggling.

by **UofMLaxGoalie11** on Mon Jun 19, 2006 6:28 pm

Dont forget Sky City.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/en ... ctive.html