Expanding The PANAMA CANAL - Greatest ever Construction

In 2006, Panamanians approved a referendum to expand the Panama Canal, doubling its capacity and allowing far larger ships to transit the 100-year-old waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific. Work began in 2007 to raise the capacity of Gatun Lake and build two new sets of locks, which would accommodate ships carrying up to 14,000 containers of freight, tripling the size limit. Sixteen massive steel gates, weighing an average of 3,100 tons each, were built in Italy and shipped to Panama to be installed in the new locks. Eight years and $5.2 billion later, the expansion project is nearing completion. The initial stages of flooding the canals have begun and the projected opening date has been set for April of 2016.

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Second longest cable stayed bridge in North America-Port Mann Bridge

The widest bridge in the world (until the Bay Bridge's east span recently opened), the bridge east of Vancouver, B.C., which opened in 2012, remains the second-longest bridge in North America. The cable-stay bridge uses an impressive 288 cables to reach a total bridge length of 6,866 feet. The Port Mann Bridge is a 10-lane cable-stayed bridge that opened to traffic in 2012. It is currently the second longest cable-stayed bridge in North America and was the widest bridge in the world until the opening of the new Bay Bridge in California . The new bridge replaced a steel arch bridge that spanned the Fraser River , connecting Coquitlam to Surrey in British Columbia near Vancouver . The old bridge consisted of three spans with an orthotropic deck carrying five lanes of Trans-Canada Highway traffic, with approach spans of three steel plate girders and ...

FALKIRK WHEEL

The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift in Scotland. It connects the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. Named after the nearby town of Falkirk in central Scotland, the lift opened in 2002. The two canals it serves were previously connected by a series of 11 locks, but by the 1930s these had fallen into disuse. The locks were filled in and the land built upon. The plan to regenerate central Scotland's canals to reconnect Glasgow with Edinburgh was led by British Waterways with support and funding from seven local authorities, the Scottish Enterprise Network, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Millennium Commission. Planners decided early on to create a dramatic 21st-century landmark structure to reconnect the canals, instead of simply recreating the historic lock flight. Designs were submitted for a boat lift to link the canals; the Falkirk Wheel-design...

Design, Construction & Structural Details of Burj Khalifa

The goal of the Burj Dubai Tower is not simply to be the world's highest building: it's to embody the world's highest aspirations. The superstructure has reached over 165 stories. The final height of the building is 2,717 feet (828 meters). The height of the multi-use skyscraper has "comfortably" exceed the previous record holder, the 509 meter (1671 ft) tall Taipei 101. The 280,000 m 2 (3,000,000 ft 2 ) reinforced concrete multi-use Burj Dubai tower is utilized for retail, a Giorgio Armani Hotel, residential and office. As with all super-tall projects, difficult structural engineering problems needed to be addressed and resolved. Structural System Description Burj Khalifa has "refuge floors" at 25 to 30 story intervals that are more fire resistant and have separate air supplies in case of emergency. Its reinforced concrete structure makes it stronger than steel-frame skyscrapers. Designers purposely shaped the st...

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