In Cologne, 2009, construction on a new subway system was well underway and was happpening directly under an archive building with artefacts and documents from the Middle Ages. The contructors noticed water coming in through the walls and alerted their managers. Shortly after evacuation, the walls caved in, estroying the archive building with all its…
A quick overview of how we build underwater structures. Oceans, rivers, and lakes are often beautiful, but they’re not necessarily convenient places to build things. Yet, many types of the infrastructure we depend on every day, including wharves, bridges, and dams, are founded below the water. How do they do it? On today’s episode, we’re…
Richard Hammond reveals how engineers made one of the longest bridges in the world earthquake-proof – . Building a structure almost 3 kilometres long in water 65 metres deep was almost the least of the engineering challenges of bridging the Gulf of Corinth in Greece. The construction would cross one of the most active seismic…
Exploring the relationship between speed, safety, and geometry of roadways. Although many of us are regular drivers, we rarely put much thought into roads. That’s on purpose. If you’re thinking about the roadway itself at all while you’re driving, it’s probably because it was poorly designed. There are so many factors that go into highway…
