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From Chinese dams to the world’s tallest building, ingenious engineering has broken records and raised expectations around the world over the last decade. TEAM Construction Week has picked TEN projects it thinks make the best showcase of engineering achievement
A few years ago, when the American Society of Engineers picked its seven wonders of the modern world, the list was dominated by projects on the American continents, with five out of the seven shared between north and south.
But as the Construction Week team prepared a list of engineering projects we think constitute some of the greatest engineering achievements of the last decade, there was a notable shift eastwards. Three of the entries are from China, which has led the world in unbridled engineering ambition over the last ten years. Each one of the Chinese projects seems determined to defy the limitations of its natural surroundings, as indeed do many of the others.
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You might not agree with all the entries, or their ranking, but the ingenuity behind each of these projects is undeniable. Each one also represents a massive leap of faith in the power of engineering to overcome the challenges of the natural world and to extend the boundaries of achievement.
#1 Millau viaduct
Taking our top spot is quite frankly the world’s most beautiful bridge structure. The Millau Viaduct was designed by Foster + Partners and completed in December 2004, after a three year construction period. Located in southwest France, the viaduct is comprised of eight sections, with lengths of 2x204 m and 6x342 m, and spans the River Tarn valley.
A total of seven reinforced concrete pylons of heights between 78 and 245 m support the 32 m-wide steel superstructure, with its hollow box girders and the steel pylons carrying the stay cables. Structural engineering was done by EEG Simecsol and Greisch, with Eiffage Construction acting as the main contractor, and Peri providing the formwork.
#2 Burj Khalifa
The world’s tallest building was an easy pick for this list. The engineering challenges of doing something for the first time, while busting through all previous height records by a massive margin, are part of the reason this structure has caught so much attention. Designed and engineered by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, (the company responsible for the equally cool, but considerably shorter Infinity Tower) the project officially opened in January of this year, although interior finishing is still ongoing.
#3 Three Gorges dam
China’s unbridled engineering ambition is brilliantly illustrated by the insane scale of the Three Gorges dam. The body of the dam was completed in 2006, but work continues to bring it to full operational status. The project has attracted a mass of criticism for its impact on the environment and local inhabitants.
More than a million people have been displaced by the dam’s reservoir, which is so large that some scientists have expressed concerns about its seismic impact. However, it also controls seasonal flooding, which has devastated the river valley in the past.
The dam is located in the areas of Xilingxia gorge, which will control a drainage area of 1 million km2 , with an average annual runoff of 451 billion m3. The dam’s expected annual average power generation accounts up to 84.7 TWH.
#4 Langeled pipeline
Claiming the title of world’s longest under water gas pipeline, Langeled was developed to pipe Norway’s natural gas to a power hungry British market. It runs 1166 km and can pump a maximum of 25.5 billion m3 of gas a year. The pipeline was opened in two stages, the first in October 2006, the second a year later. The annual capacity of the pipeline is 25.5 billion m3.
The pipeline supplements the Vesterled system with annual capacity about 12 billion m3. The project cost £1.7 billion (US $2.5 billion). Statoil planned and executed the pipelaying, awarding Acergy a contract for the installation of 1040 km of the pipeline. A total of 528 km of 44-inch pipeline was installed in the southern section between Sleipner and Easington and 512 km of 42-inch pipeline, from Nyhamna towards Sleipner.
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