Every year, engineers and architects develop ambitious projects that are designed to make people's lives better. Huge amounts of money are invested in the construction of tunnels, bridges, power plants, and artificial islands. The most impressive engineering structures speak most eloquently about the level of development of our civilization.

1. Large Hadron Collider

The LHC or Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest ring accelerator of charged particles using colliding beams. In it, protons or heavy ions, for example, lead, can be accelerated to near light speeds, and then there is a long analytical work to study the results of their collisions.
The collider is located at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva and the French-Swiss border. This is the largest and most powerful research facility on the planet. More than 10,000 engineers and researchers from more than 100 countries took part in its construction and subsequent operation. The dimensions of the collider are impressive. The main ring of the accelerator has a length of almost 27 kilometers. The word "hadronic" refers to a type of particle that is accelerated - those made of quarks. Two beams of these particles accelerated to enormous speeds and in the opposite direction collide in places where giant and very sensitive detectors are installed.


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2. International Space Station

The ISS is an orbital manned station that serves as a multifunctional research space complex. The ISS is an international project, in which 15 countries take part, including the USA, Russia, France, Japan, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland and Norway. The station is controlled from two control centers: the Russian segment from Korolev, and the American segment from Houston. Both centers actively exchange information every day.

3. Palm Deira - artificial islands in Dubai

This archipelago of artificial islands was called the Palm Islands. They are located in the emirate of Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates. These islands are called an architectural and engineering miracle. In just three years, 3 new islands appeared here: Palm Jebel Ali, Palm Jumeirah and Palm Deira. Their basis on seabed 85 million cubic meters of sand were poured there. They say that they could be seen without a telescope even from the Moon. Between the large islands there are smaller bulk archipelagos - “Universe” and “World”.

4. Three Gorges Dam, China

In China, on the third longest river in the world, the Yangtze, the world's largest hydroelectric power station was built, which was called the “Three Gorges”. It is located near Sandouping City, Hubei Province, Yichang City. It is the first in the world in terms of installed capacity, and its gravity dam made of durable concrete is also one of the most ambitious in the world. Before filling the reservoir, authorities had to resettle 1.3 million local residents.

5. Five-star JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai

The high-rise hotel complex “Marriott Marquis”, located in the same emirate of Dubai, is currently one of the tallest in the world. It occupies two buildings, each 355 meters high.
The company that owns this hotel initially planned to build only one 77-story tower, and its construction was to be completed in 2008. But then fundamental changes were made to the original project, and only in 2006 a new version was approved. Instead of one tower with a height of 395 meters, two appeared, but slightly lower - 355 meters each.
The opening of the hotel took place when a delegation from the International Exhibition Bureau came to Dubai due to the fact that the UAE had received an application to host the World Expo in Dubai in 2020. The project cost approximately $432 million. This gigantic hotel has 1,608 rooms, and its infrastructure includes: 15 restaurants, conference rooms, a business center, meeting rooms, a shopping complex and a spa center. On the seventh floor of one of the towers there is a 32-meter swimming pool with all the necessary equipment.


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6. The world's longest suspension bridge Akashi-Kaikyo, Japan

This grand suspension bridge spans the Akashi Strait, connecting the city of Kobe, located on the island of Honshu, with the city of the same name located on the island of Awaji. It became the third highway that connects Shikoku and Honshu.
This is the longest suspension bridge on the planet - its total length is 3911 meters, with the central span accounting for 1991 meters, and the side spans 960 meters each. The pylons of the bridge soared to a height of 298 meters. Interestingly, according to the project, the length of the main span was supposed to be exactly 1990 meters, but after strong earthquake in Kobe in 1995, the ocean floor shifted and slightly increased the length of the bridge. The bridge design uses double-hinged stiffening beams, which are necessary for the bridge to withstand wind gusts of up to 80 meters per second, resist strong currents or an earthquake of up to 8.5 magnitude. To reduce the loads acting on the bridge, its design uses a system of pendulums capable of oscillating in resonance with the bridge structure.

7. The world's largest cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas

Royal Caribbean has acquired the world's largest and most luxurious cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas, which cost it $1.24 billion. This 16-deck giant is 1,180 feet long and has 2,700 cabins that can comfortably accommodate 5,400 passengers. At their service is not only the sea beyond - the central park, excellent bars and restaurants, the Vintages wine library, and there are even specially designated areas for picnics. In the central park, made in the likeness of New York, travelers have balcony rooms - luxurious places where you can arrange meetings at any time of the day or night. In addition to this, there are 6 more sections on the liner.


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8. Eurotunnel under the English Channel

“Eurotunnel” is the name given to a double-track railway tunnel dug under the English Channel, separating the island of Great Britain from continental Europe. His total length is 51 kilometers, of which 39 pass directly under the strait. After the construction of the Eurotunnel and its grand opening on May 6, 1994, you can get from Paris to London in just 2 and a quarter hours by high-speed train. At the same time, the train stays in the tunnel for only 20-35 minutes.

9. Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The twin towers of this skyscraper have 88 floors and a height of 451.9 m. They are the decoration of the capital of Malaysia. The Prime Minister of this country, Mahathir Mohamad, proposed building a skyscraper in the Islamic style. Therefore, from above the towers look like eight-pointed stars, and the architect added semicircular protrusions only for the stability of the structure.
The towers were built from 1992 to 1998, and to increase the speed of construction and create competition, the contractors were two different construction companies. At geological exploration Before construction, it was discovered that part of the complex would stand on the edge of solid rock, but the other part would be on softer limestone. After the appearance of heavy towers on such a heterogeneous foundation, the one that would fall on the limestone would certainly sag. Therefore, it was decided to move the entire site to soft ground 60 m from the original mark, but the foundation piles had to be deepened by more than 100 m. The result was the largest concrete foundation in the world.
The Petronas building is not only enormous in size, but also complex in design. The total area of ​​its premises is 213,750 square meters. m (48 football fields), and the area occupied by the building complex is 40 hectares. In addition to offices, Petronas Towers has meeting rooms and an art gallery.


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10. Falkirk Wheel

British engineers were able to connect the Union and Forth Clyde canals, which intersect at different heights, using a unique design - the Falkirk wheel, which became the world's first rotating ship lift. It took 1,200 tons of steel, and the height of the structure is 45 m. The wheel is driven by hydraulic engines, with its help a small vessel can move from one canal to another in just an hour.

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Ground Zero reconstruction

LOCATION

New York, USA

opening date

2017

Price

$25 billion



International Space Station

LOCATION

Earth's orbit

opening date

2024

Price

$150 billion

The most expensive international science project: Since its launch in 1998, $150 billion has already been spent on the assembly and maintenance of the ISS. Consisting of 14 modules, the station is a hundred meters long and can accommodate 6 astronauts. This is not the last configuration of the ISS: in the coming years, two more research modules should be attached to it. It recently became known that Russia will not participate in the project until 2024, as was previously assumed: instead, Roscosmos will focus on new projects.



Masdar city

LOCATION

Abu Dhabi, UAE

opening date

2020

Price

$20 billion

Science parks connecting business and cutting-edge research are being built around the world - high tech can become the basis of the economy for the economies of developing countries. However, even among the laggards there are already clear winners: the rich countries of the Persian Gulf, investing windfall profits from the sale of hydrocarbons in the creation of future infrastructure. Such, for example, is the Masdar project in Abu Dhabi - not a technopark, but an entire city worth $20 billion, designed by the bureau of the British Norman Foster. Jobs in a post-industrial city of 50,000 people will be built around a new Institute of Science and Technology, working closely with MIT. The first scientific research buildings in Masdar appeared back in 2010, and by the time of its completion in 2020, the city will become the embodiment of all modern technologies. The city will implement an innovative system of personal automatic transport, and all the necessary energy will come from renewable sources.





Dubailand Amusement Park

LOCATION

Dubai, UAE

opening date

2015

Price

$65 billion

The Winter Olympics in Sochi cost $51 billion - these are the most expensive sport games in history, but hardly the largest entertainment megaproject. In just a year, the Dubailand complex is due to open in the UAE: an area of ​​300 square kilometers will house 45 theme parks, sports complexes, shopping and leisure centers and hotels. Dubailand will be twice the size of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and will be the largest entertainment destination on the planet.





Songdo City

LOCATION

South Korea

opening date

2015

Price

$40 billion

Founded just ten years ago, South Korean Songdo is both an analogue of the Al-Maktoum aeropolis and the scientific city of Masdar. This is a compact business city located near Incheon International Airport and connected to it by a spectacular suspension bridge. In a couple of years, about 65 thousand people will live here - mostly entrepreneurs and scientists working at one of the four local universities. Songdo was created from scratch as a “green” and “smart” city. It will become a platform for experiments in the field of Internet of Things.

Every year, dozens of skyscrapers and hundreds of high-rise buildings are built around the world. We present to your attention 13 of the world's tallest architectural masterpieces.

Hong Kong International Commerce Center

In 2010, a 118-story, 484-meter skyscraper was built in Hong Kong. It is the tallest building in the city, the seventh tallest in Asia and the ninth tallest in the world.

Shanghai World Financial Center

The 492 m high skyscraper in Shanghai was built by the Japanese company Mori Building Corporation. The main designer of the project is David Malott from New York. The unofficial name of the building is "opener".

Taipei 101

The Taipei 101 skyscraper is located in the capital of Taiwan, Taipei. The 101-story building has a height of 509.2 m. Shopping centers are located on the lower floors of the building, and offices are located on the upper floors. It is the sixth tallest structure in the world and the fifth tallest in Asia.

This skyscraper has the fastest elevators in the world, rising at a speed of 60.6 km/h. From the fifth floor to the observation deck on the 89th you can get there in just 39 seconds.

The building is made of glass, steel and aluminum and is supported by 380 concrete pillars! According to engineers, the tower will be able to withstand an earthquake of any magnitude.

Willis Tower

The Chicago skyscraper Willis Tower is 443.2 m high and has 110 floors. It was built in 1973.

At that time, it was the tallest building in the world, surpassing the height of the World Trade Center towers in New York. This record held for the building for 25 years.

It is now the second tallest building in the United States.

Ostankino Tower

The height of the Ostankino TV Tower in Moscow is 540.1 m. The building is the 8th tallest free-standing structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa skyscraper (Dubai), the Tokyo Sky Tree, and the Shanghai Tower (Shanghai).

The Ostankino TV Tower is the tallest building in Europe and is a full member of the World Federation of Tall Towers.

World Trade Center 1

1 World Trade Center was built on the site of the destroyed Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. This is the central building in the new World Trade Center complex. It is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Shanghai Tower.

The 541 m high building is located on a plot of 65,000 square meters.

CN Tower

The height of the symbol of the city of Toronto, the CN Tower, is 553.33 meters.

Initially, the abbreviation CN stood for Canadian National (the tower belonged to the state company Canadian National Railways). Toronto residents decided to keep the building's original name, and now the abbreviation CN stands for Canada's National.

Guangzhou TV Tower

This is the second tallest television tower in the world. It was built from 2005 to 2010 for the 2010 Asian Games. The height of the TV tower is 600 meters. Up to a height of 450 meters, the tower resembles a combination of a hyperboloid load-bearing grid shell and a central core.

The mesh shell of the tower is made of large diameter steel pipes. The tower's spire is 160 meters high.

TV and radio tower KVLY-TV

The height of the television and radio mast, which is located in North Dakota (USA), is 628.8 meters.

The building is the third tallest structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo.

Shanghai Tower

Shanghai Tower is a skyscraper in the Pudong district of Shanghai in China. The height of the structure is 632 meters, the total area is 380 thousand m². The Shanghai World Financial Center is located next to the skyscraper.

Construction of the tower was completed in 2015. The building is the tallest building in Shanghai, the first tallest in China and the third tallest free-standing structure in the world.

Tokyo Skytree

Tokyo Skytree is the tallest television tower in the world. It is located in the Sumida area of ​​Tokyo.

The height of the television tower together with the antenna is 634 meters, it is twice as tall as the Tokyo Television Tower. The height of the tower was chosen in such a way that the numbers: 6, 3, 4 were consonant with the name “Musashi” - historical region, where modern Tokyo is located.

Warsaw radio tower

The radio mast, 646.38 meters high, was considered the tallest building in the world until it collapsed in 1991, when the Burj Khalifa skyscraper took the crown.

The tower was intended for long-wave radio broadcasting to Poland and Europe. The project was developed by the famous Polish engineer Jan Polyak.

Burj Khalifa

The largest building in the world is located in Dubai. The height of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper is 828 meters! It was built in the form of a stalagmite.

This tower is a kind of “city within a city” - with its own lawns, boulevards and parks. Inside the complex there are apartments, offices, shopping centers and a hotel. The building has three separate entrances.

The hotel was designed by the famous Giorgio Armani.

Do you think it’s only here that they build grandiosely and expensively, and then don’t know what to adapt it to?
Where there!
Is there some more North Korea, Canada, Cote d'Ivoire, Spain, Greece, Romania with their examples of multi-billions buried in the ground and poured into concrete.
Here are just a few expensive and in many ways unique construction projects, the maintenance of which costs owners a pretty penny, but neither the creators nor visitors need them.

Mirabel Airport
Montreal, Canada
Plans for a new airport for Canada's second largest city, Montreal, were first unveiled in 1967. And they amazed the imagination: the largest area in the world (40,000 hectares), passenger traffic of up to 50 million people per year (this is the approximate total passenger traffic of Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo combined for 2016), its own high-speed line railway, monorail, highway, hotel complex, six terminals, six runways, including strips for receiving supersonic airliners, and so on.
The first stage of the airport was put into operation in 1975, but the plans of its creators were not destined to come true. Erroneous planning of traffic flows, the decline in the attractiveness of Montreal as an economic center, changes in the policies of the Quebec government and other factors led to the fact that during its entire existence, not even 3 million passengers passed through Mirabel per year.
In 2004, due to unprofitability, the airport stopped serving regular commercial flights, turning into a cargo air harbor. Races began to be held on the vast runways, and films were filmed in the terminal building. And in 2014, they decided to demolish the terminal building because it was too expensive to operate and no one really needed it. The construction of Mirabell Airport was recognized as a mistake, and the honorary title of “white elephant” was awarded to it in the first decade of its existence. This happens quite often with airports. Thus, the new main Berlin air harbor - Berlin-Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport - was planned to open back in 2011, but it still does not accept either planes or passengers due to errors in the project.

Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Paix
Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast
In 1983, the permanent president of Côte d'Ivoire, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who by that time had ruled this small African country for almost a quarter of a century, decided to move the capital from the large developed coastal city of Abidjan inland, namely to the village of Yamoussoukro - there, where the politician was born and raised.
Two years later, Houphouët-Boigny laid the foundation stone for the largest church in the world, Notre-Dame de la Paix, or Our Lady of Peace. Construction took four years and cost the country's budget, according to various estimates, from 175 to 600 million dollars. And this is not surprising: hundreds of tons of marble were brought from Italy, stained glass windows from France, the building ended up with an area of ​​30 thousand square meters. m and a height of 158 meters (higher than St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, although Notre-Dame de la Paix can accommodate about 18 thousand people, which is three times less than the same St. Peter's Cathedral). The square paved with granite and marble in front of the basilica can accommodate another 200 thousand people, that is, approximately the entire population of Yamoussoukro, of which at most 19% are Catholics.
Speaking of population, about 42% of the population of Côte d'Ivoire lives below the poverty line, that is, on less than $1.25 a day. Services in the basilica today attract hundreds of people at best.

Ryugyong Hotel
Pyongyang, DPRK
In 1987, the North Korean government under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung announced the start of construction of the tallest building in the country - the 105-story, 330-meter Ryugyong Hotel with 3,000 (according to other sources - 7,700) rooms and with revolving restaurants on top.
The construction of the hotel was planned to be completed by the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1989, however, due to problems with materials, the main structures were completed only by 1992, after which work stopped altogether for almost a decade and a half due to economic crisis, and the skeleton of “Ryugyong” became a symbol of Pyongyang.
Construction resumed in 2008, and over the next three years the concrete structure was lined with glass, the new opening date was 2013, and the first photographs of the interiors of the future hotel appeared on the Internet. The opening, however, has not taken place to this day, and experts around the world doubt that North Korea is even capable of completing construction and that the building is suitable for use. It is noteworthy that London's tallest skyscraper, The Shard, which has a similar shape, also stands half empty - buyers are in no hurry to purchase apartments worth 30-50 million pounds sterling.

Shopping complex "Novy" shopping mall South China"
Dongguan, China
In 2005, in a poor suburb of Dongguan with a population of 6 million, a five-story shopping complex, the New South China Mall, was opened - the largest in the world. The construction cost exceeded $1.3 billion. The scale is enormous even by Chinese standards: up to 2,350 retail outlets with total area 660 thousand sq. m (plus another 232 thousand sq. m of other premises), a 25-meter model of the Parisian Arc de Triomphe, canals with gondolas, roller coasters and other entertainment - and no visitors.
In the first years after opening, tenants occupied only 1% of the center's space. Ten years later, this figure increased tenfold, but even today the complex is largely empty. The reason is that the local population does not earn enough to make the complex attractive to sellers, and developers' hopes that Dongguan residents will become rich have not materialized.

City of Galician culture
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
At the beginning of 1999, the Galician Parliament announced that the work of the architect Peter Eisenman won in the design competition for the City of Culture of Galicia (Cidade da Cultura de Galicia): buildings on the Monte Gaias hill, as if squeezed out of the ground and resembling both cobblestones and mollusk shells, should were home to concert halls, galleries, museums, a library and an archive.
Construction lasted more than ten years, cost at least twice as much as planned (in the project, Aizenman indicated a figure of 400 million euros) and was eventually stopped by a decision of the regional government. Two of the six buildings remained unfinished, and most importantly, the vast complex did not attract the expected number of tourists and local residents, while its maintenance is very expensive for the local budget.

Clem Jones Tunnel
Brisbane, Australia
At the beginning of this century, the government of Brisbane, Australia, decided to build a series of tunnels to ease traffic in the city and reduce travel time from one end to the other. One of these tunnels was the 4.8-kilometre Clem Jones, which runs under the Brisbane River.
When construction began in 2005, the tunnel was expected to be the longest in Australia. Its construction cost 3.2 billion Australian dollars (approximately 2.5 billion US dollars) and was not an easy task: the builders had to break through very hard rock - Brisbane tuff, for which they used the largest roadheaders in the world at that time, costing 50 million Australian dollars each.
The tunnel and access roads were finally opened on February 28, 2010 to a large crowd. But it soon became clear that citizens use the tunnel much less frequently than the city council had planned: for example, officials expected that 60 thousand cars would pass through the tunnel every day, but in fact about 20 thousand drivers use it every day, and it saves only eight minutes on the road and relieves other city highways by only 5-10%. Travel through the tunnel is paid, but even discounts and radical price reductions (to the detriment of the project's return on investment) do not help increase the attractiveness of the structure among city residents. The operating company's losses in 2010 amounted to 1.6 billion Australian dollars.

Objects of the 2004 Olympics
Athens and surroundings, Greece
The Greek capital has been fighting for the right to host the Summer Olympics since the early 1990s and, having lost the 1996 anniversary Games to the American Atlanta, finally received the right to host the 2004 Olympics. Preparations for the Games - the construction of sports and transport facilities, the Olympic Village - cost the country's government 9 billion euros. And although officials recognized the Games as profitable, the costs only aggravated the severe debt crisis that began three years after their completion.
At the same time, the costs of maintaining sports facilities in proper condition were estimated at 500 million euros annually, and these facilities themselves turned out to be of no use to anyone. Thus, the center for rowing competitions turned into a fetid swamp and a place comfortable stay hordes of mosquitoes, the shooting stadium is overgrown, and the Olympic Village is gradually being destroyed. Interestingly, approximately the same thing is happening with the Olympic venues in Rio de Janeiro and Beijing, as well as with sports facilities built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Palace of Parliament
Bucharest, Romania
This is the heaviest and largest administrative building in the world, ordered by Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu in 1984. To build the Palace of Parliament, builders demolished a fifth of Old Bucharest, tore down the top of Spirius Hill, used 1 million tons of marble, 3.5 thousand tons of crystal, 700 thousand tons of steel and bronze, 900 thousand cubic meters of wood and 200 thousand square meters. meters of carpets. By the time of Ceausescu's execution in 1989, the 12-story, 86-meter-high building (not counting the 92-meter-deep underground chambers) was largely completed, although work ceased with the fall of communism in Romania. Some parts of the building are still unfinished.
Now the palace premises have a total area of ​​365 thousand square meters. meters (this is about one and a half Red Squares in Moscow) are located both houses of the Romanian parliament, three museums and a conference center. Together they occupy about 30% of the palace. The cost of the structure is estimated at 3 billion euros, while its lighting and heating costs about 6 million euros annually - about the same amount a medium-sized Romanian city spends per year on the same needs.


Based on materials:

2017 promises to be rich in amazing construction and engineering projects. Some of them are already nearing completion, while others are just beginning. Here are the seven most expensive construction projects in the world at the moment

The complexity and functionality of engineering projects today are increasingly associated with the level of development of society as a whole. That is why such construction projects most often become a matter of national and sometimes global scale. Their implementation requires the efforts of millions of people and fabulous investments.

Al Maktoum International Airport

A country: UAE

Project cost:$82 billion

This airport in Dubai will be fully operational in 2018. It will become the largest in the world in several respects: area, infrastructure complexity and throughput.

The first stage of construction of the largest aviation hub was commissioned in 2010. At the same time, the airport received its first passengers. In seven years, the territory of Al-Maktoum has increased tenfold.


Photo: Caren Firouz/Reuters

To the moment full delivery When put into operation, it will house five runways, four full-fledged air terminal buildings with several terminals in each and a separate cargo terminal, which will become the world's largest transport hub in terms of cargo turnover. The airport will be able to annually serve about 160 million passengers, simultaneously receive about 200 aircraft, and also handle more than 400 thousand tons of cargo through its terminals.

The turn of Chinese rivers to the north

A country: China

Project cost:$78 billion


The idea of ​​turning the waters of Chinese rivers from south to north is attributed to Mao Zedong himself. In 1952, he made such a proposal, focusing on his party comrades from the USSR, where they also hatched plans for the great turn of the Siberian rivers for the needs of Central Asia.

The grandiose project will allow the northern regions of China to be irrigated using the country's largest rivers. According to the plan, three water arteries will be built, each about 1,300 kilometers long. Due to this, excess water that harms southeast China will be redirected to the dry areas of the north.

Construction of the canals began in 2002. The work plan, designed to last almost half a century, involves the unification of the basins of the four largest large rivers China - Yangtze, Yellow River, Haihe and Huaihe. Strictly speaking, there will be no turning of the rivers: excess water from the deep southern arteries will feed the northern rivers, at the same time connecting them into a convenient transport network. In addition, the canals will supply water supplies to the largest reservoirs in northern China.

The construction process will use the infrastructure of one of the largest engineering projects of antiquity - the Grand Canal. It was created over the course of two thousand years by many generations of Chinese emperors (VI century BC - XIII century AD). The canal connected the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, which were the main waterways of Ancient China.