Everyday the boundaries of engineering are challenged with new amazing projects being undertaken and implemented to fulfil the needs of present day life. This article celebrates some famous engineering feats which have helped shape society today along with other feats that are simply marvelous in the audacity from the challenges they resolve.
1) Moon Landing – Moon landings could be classified as manned or unmanned landings, however when you mention the ‘moon landing’ then many people consider the first manned landing on the moon once the Apollo 11 mission placed two astronauts (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) to the surface, leaving us using the immortal phrase: ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind…’ The quest for placing a person on the surface from the moon began in earnest within the 1960s and was completed within a decade on July 20th 1969. The wedding marked a definitive reason for the 20th Century and also at time helped cement the United States above Russia as the ‘greatest superpower’ whilst firing the imagination of generations of kids.
2) Panama Canal – Opened in 1914 this man-made canal joins the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The Panama Canal would be a colossal engineer project which led to a massive effect on shipping between your two oceans by reducing the journey time immensely. For example a journey from Ny and Bay area via Cape Horn is around 14,000 miles whilst exactly the same journey but rather with the Panama Canal is less than half the journey at 6000 miles. Average journey time through the canal is between 8-10 hours and the largest ship that can traverse the canal is classed as a Panamax. This size of the ships that may travel the canal are restricted by the maximum size the locks. The max length of a ship allowed to travel along the canal is 294.1 meters with a Draft of 12.0 metres.
3) Burj Dubai – is really a skyscraper which holds the record for that world tallest building. The Burj Dubai towers above the surrounding landscape in a huge 818meters tall and has been built as a centerpiece of an urban development that will include homes, hotels and parkland. The prior record holder for the world tallest structure was the KVLY-TV mast situated in North Dakota, Usa, however the Burj Dubai breaks this record with a long way. The more you discover the Burj Dubai the more amazing the whole structure seems, with lots of from the building’s sub-systems being record breakers themselves, like the observatory lifts smashing the record for the longest travel distance between lowest and highest stop. These elevators also travel at 40mph or 18 meters per second which sounds like a fast ride! During the time of writing there aren’t any structures being built that may challenge the Burj Dubai for that world tallest building, but there are several buildings which have been proposed and also have potential funding, such as the Mile High Tower, but those projects still have a long way to visit before they are even started.
4) Millau Viaduct – The Millau Viaduct may not be the longest bridge in the world but it’s current the tallest vehicular bridge standing at a whopping 353 meters which is taller compared to epitome of French symbols- the Eiffel Tower. The bridge was opened in December 2004 and crosses the Valley of the River Tarn close to Millau within the South of France. The bridge was designed by structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and architect Norman Foster and possesses both an engineering wow factor as well as an audacious design. The architect Normal Foster was quoted as stating that the bridge looked ‘impossibly delicate’ and would be a ‘dialogue between nature and the man made.’, after taking a look at this elegant structure it is hard to disagree.
5) Supertankers – Behemoths of the ocean, the supertanker is the largest class of ocean going oil-tanker. The largest ever tankers were the Knock Nevis (long at 458.4m long) and the Batillus Class Supertankers, which amongst them contain the records for that highest gross tonnage of 275,276 tons. All four Batillus supertankers have finally been scrapped, whilst the Knock Nevis has now been classified as a floating storage and offloading unit therefore these great ships which were built throughout the 1970′s have not been surpassed in size since. To create a comparison in dimensions the Knock Nevis is slightly more than the peak of the Empire State Building in Ny (443m high)
6) Channel Tunnel (Le tunnel sous la Manche) The Channel Tunnel is the longest tunnel by having an undersea section in the world. The length of the Channel Tunnel is 50.5 kilometres in links Folkestone, England to Coquelles, France. The tunnel itself was bored through a chalk marl stratum which was deemed a good material for tunneling as it is both strong and simple to excavate. The particular tunnel consists of three separate tunnels connected together by cross-passage links. The two main tunnels which or rail tunnels are 7.6 metre in diameter, whilst the service tunnel is 4.8 metre across. Construction from the tunnel began in 1988 and opened in 1994 and it has been rated among the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
7) Three Gorges Dam – Another huge feat of engineering the Three Gorges Dam is really a hydroelectric river dam that spans the Yangtze River in China and it is the biggest hydroelectric power station on the planet having a power output of as much as 22,500 MW. It’s tough to envision the size from the dam at 2309 metres wide and 101 metres tall. As with most projects it comes with an environmental impact which ensures that the project is controversial because it has a negative effect on the wildlife, landscape and native culture, however from an engineering point of view it’s hard to not be astounded by that which was achieved through the project.
Concorde – Between 1976 and 2003 the only way to fly transatlantic between London and Ny (if you were lucky enough to get have the ability to afford it) was by flying in Concorde- the earth’s most successful supersonic passenger airline. Concorde was able to cruise in an average speed of Mach 2.02 (1,330 mph) and had a maximum cruise altitude of 60,000 feet making the flight time from London to Ny only 3.5 hours long. The designers of Concorde had to pioneer and over come many engineering and technological challenges to make the airplane able to travel at such speeds and altitude. The aircraft enjoyed many successful years but was finally retired in 2003. Numerous things coincided using the demise of Concorde, in part a general change in the economical climate made the cost to fly transatlantic at supersonic speeds less viable, a crash of one from the Concorde fleet temporarily grounded the airplane and also the design was showing signs and symptoms of age approaching thirty years in commission. Because of the lack of competition Concorde didn’t take advantage of many upgrades through the years therefore the technology ended up being slightly dated. However, as dated because the engineering might have become over its life cycle the fact remains that the idea of a supersonic commercial airline and the design that resulted from that concept was not surpassed and something could state that technology and engineering has receded with Concorde’s demise as no viable replacement has been set up. Today high-class commercial passengers are limited to the same lower speeds achievable by traditional aircraft. The times of supersonic passenger aircraft zooming across the Atlantic have therefore been grounded for the near future.
9) Langeled Pipeline – On the surface an extended pipe can happen boring, but underneath the surface (no pun intended) the Langeled Pipeline which will help make million of Britons make their tea each morning is very the engineering feat. The Langeled Pipeline was created to bring gas from Norway towards the UK the Langeled Pipeline within the longest underwater pipeline on the planet stretching 1,200km from Nyhamna in Norway to Easington, England. Gas from the Langeled means 20% of Britain’s gas supply making it a fundamental element of the Britain’s energy infrastructure and the pipeline can carry 70 million cubic meters of gas daily. The project was finished in two stages with the other half from the project opening in October 2006.
10) TauTona Mine – The TauTona is a gold mine in South Africa which is now the deepest mine on the planet at 3.9km deep and can be explained three ways, deep, very damaging and lucrative. The TauTona mine had been challenging for the record from the deepest mine for a while however when the mine’s owners AngloGold Ashanti decided to expand the mine then it took the record in the East Rand Mine that was 3,585m deep. The mine was originally sunk in 1957 with operations starting in 1962, however because the original construction two additional shafts have been created. The mine has around 800km of tunnels and Working in the TauTona mine could be dangerous with miners occasionally loosing their life. Workers within the mine have to travel for approximately an hour or so to reach the rock face, which can reach temperatures of 60C