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Discovery Channel - Extreme Engineering, 22 Episodes
Password: Inspired
Extreme Engineering - Transatlantic Tunnel
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A Trans-Atlantic floating tunnel carries 5000-mile-an-hour, Mag-lev (magnetically levitated) trains between New York, London and Paris. The train makes the 3100 mile journey in less than an hour. Passengers and freight travel in climate-controlled cars. The tunnel floats 150 feet under the North Atlantic's surface�enough room for ships to pass safely overhead. The steel cables that tether the tunnel to the ocean floor are controlled by GPS and computers systems that can adjust the cables for shifts in ocean currents and tectonic plates. Passengers enjoy the comfort of specially designed seats that would relieve the effects of g-forces while whales and nuclear subs glide soundlessly around them. Prototypes are being built in Norway and Japan. Disaster is always possible. The Gulf Stream's massive current could bend and crack the tunnel. A nuclear sub could ram it. And if two trains were to collide and a fire broke out, or if the train�s oxygen supply failed, the results could be catastrophic.
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Extreme Engineering: City in a Pyramid
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One of the most crowded cities in the world – and also one of the shortest on available land area – Tokyo, Japan is a city bursting at the seams. Hoping to relieve the stress of alarming overpopulation, the city's construction industry has trained its sights on the only vacant lot around – the waters of Tokyo Bay. Witness the impossible dream of city planners: to build a massive pyramid over the water, with skyscrapers suspended like peapods within its enormous frame.
Called the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid, it would stand a kilometer tall and provide housing for up to 750,000 people. Even more amazing, the entire construction process may proceed without the work of a single human builder. With the invention of new super-lightweight materials, humanoid robots and self-assembling structures, the pyramid might be the first city in the world to build itself!
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Extreme Engineering: Bridging the Bering Strait
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A massive bridge joining North America and Asia – following the same intercontinental route as the ancient Bering Strait land bridge – holds the promise of unprecedented economic growth on both continents. That is, if it can be built.
Join structural engineers and leading architects as they reveal their impressive design plans for this futuristic passage. Spanning 55 miles of violent seas and crushing ice, the entire bridge would be encased in concrete – including the support cables – to enable it to withstand the rigors of the Arctic Ocean. The bridge's main deck would sport a multi-lane highway, allowing for two-way truck, car and train traffic. Beneath the topside asphalt, a complex network of oil, gas and electric pipelines would carry vital energy between the continents. And the whole thing would rest comfortably on massive, steel-reinforced concrete pillars – each weighing millions of pounds – specifically designed to endure the ever-shifting Arctic ice.
But, even if such an enormous construction project were possible, what of the everyday safety concerns? Engineers use high-tech computer imagery to simulate potential disasters – like marauding icebergs, train derailments and fires caused by vehicle collisions – then demonstrate how designers are well on their way to guaranteeing the safety of bridge travelers.
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Extreme Engineering: Building Hong Kong's Airport
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In the mid-1990s, the government of Hong Kong found itself in the midst of a developing economic crisis: Kai Tak – the city's tiny and outdated airport – was quickly being overrun by international air traffic and cargo shipments – the economic lifeblood of the island territory. Nestled in the middle of downtown and with no room to grow, Kai Tak was becoming a liability. So the Hong Kong government undertook the largest civil engineering project in history: building a new international airport – 16 miles out to sea!
Follow architects and engineers as they reveal – through archival footage, building schematics and first-hand testimony – how they were able to complete this amazing project. Planners selected a site off the coast of a rocky island, and construction crews built a gigantic platform by leveling two small islands and reclaiming the rest from the ocean floor. Workers built a huge terminal on top of the new island – still the largest enclosed space in the world. To reach the new airport, a completely new transportation infrastructure was built, including a series of world-class highways, bridges, tunnels and railways. And everything was completed in record time, as engineers raced against a formidable deadline – Britain's return of Hong Kong to the Chinese. Finished on schedule and under budget, the project is a testament to the spirit of Hong Kong and a prime example of extreme engineering.
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Extreme Engineering: Venice Flood Gates
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Extreme Engineering unveils some of the most ambitious architectural plans of our times. Some are theoretical; others are in the works. But all of these modern marvels pose challenges that stretch the definition of what's possible. Watch as jaw-dropping computer animation and first-hand accounts from builders, designers and engineers breathe life into the most extreme construction projects ever conceived.
The clock is ticking in Venice, Italy as designers and engineers battle the elements to keep the canal-laden city from becoming the next Atlantis. The enormous undertaking calls for 79 steel floodgates – each bigger than a football field and weighing over 300 tons – to close off the encroaching Adriatic Sea at the three inlets to the Venice lagoon during times of high tide. But before the gates can go in, massive barrier walls must be built. It's a Herculean challenge, to be sure. But just as Venice's founders once defended the city from foreign invaders, these modern-day Venetians hope to erect colossal defensive walls to fend off the marauding sea. The question is – can they be built before the water finally wins this centuries old struggle?
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File Size: 1.43gb. This is a Discovery High Definition Video. Its a .mkv (Matroska Media File). You might have to download the Matroska Codec. I tried to convert to avi but failed. Sorry for any inconvenience. Enjoy!
Extreme Engineering: Container Ships
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Extreme Engineering unveils some of the most ambitious architectural plans of our times. Some are theoretical; others are in the works. But all of these modern marvels pose challenges that stretch the definition of what's possible. Watch as jaw-dropping computer animation and first-hand accounts from builders, designers and engineers breathe life into the most extreme construction projects ever conceived.
Watch as a group of ambitious Danish shipbuilders set out to blow the rudders off the worldwide cargo shipping industry by building the most colossal, powerful cargo ship ever conceived. With its designers determined to push the outer limits of what is possible with today's materials and technology, this ship will look more like a skyscraper than a sea-going vessel.
The hulking tub will be able to store 4,000 shipping containers – each 40 feet long, 15 feet wide and 12 feet high – quite comfortably in its cavernous hull. It will also have the biggest engine in the world – a 93,000-horsepower diesel power plant that, at full power, will put out as much thrust as all the Indy 500 cars of the last five years combined. Yet, remarkably, the immense motor will turn at just 200 rpm – or 20 to 30 times slower than your average family sedan.
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Extreme Engineering: Holland's Barriers to the Sea
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Most of Holland is below sea level, a drainage basin for three major rivers. This problem has plagued the country with periodic flooding, killer sea swells and massive loss of crops and life since the Middle Ages.
In 1995, after a pounding from a world-class hurricane, workers began constructing one of the engineering wonders of the world – the Delta Works and Measlandkering – a series of barriers designed to protect the country from the encroaching sea.
Watch as designers reveal the inner workings of these surprisingly sophisticated contraptions. The Delta Works is a network of massive, computer-controlled sea barriers and dams that straddle each of the major rivers emptying into the delta. While the Measlandkering is a gigantic sea surge barrier a quarter-of-a-mile wide that consists of two horizontal, hydraulically-run walls, each of whose giant sea "arms? is 1,000 feet long. Technicians demonstrate the practical power source behind the barriers – the Netherlands' famous, electrically-driven windmills! The system's 60 floodgates – each 75 feet high -remain standing in good weather, allowing the three rivers to flow into the sea, but are lowered in less than an hour for threatening storms.
In 1995, 200,000 people fled for their lives as the sea came crashing in. But with the addition of the Delta Works and the Measlandkering – holding the worst the angry sea can throw – the countryside and its people are assured to be safer and drier!
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Extreme Engineering: Iceland Tunnels
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Extreme Engineering unveils some of the most ambitious architectural plans of our times. Some are theoretical; others are in the works. But all of these modern marvels pose challenges that stretch the definition of what's possible. Watch as jaw-dropping computer animation and first-hand accounts from builders, designers and engineers breathe life into the most extreme construction projects ever conceived.
Hundreds of feet below the Eastern Highlands – a vast ice plateau 200 miles northeast of Reykjavik, Iceland and just 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle – a determined group of engineers and diggers have taken on the task of a lifetime: They're trying to carve more than 45 miles of connected tunnels through solid rock. It's all part of an audacious plan by the Icelandic government to turn ice into electricity.
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Extreme Engineering - Tokyo's Sky City
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In Japan, plans are on the table to build the tallest structure on earth. Called Sky City, it will be a kilometer tall, twice the height of any existing building. The towering, vertical city will house more than 100,000 people and provide for every aspect of modern life with parks, schools, homes, offices and shops. A solution to Tokyo’s terrible land crunch, Sky City would be home to the world’s very first homesteaders in the sky. But troubling questions surround it. Can it be built? And would it be safe from disasters both natural and man made, including earthquakes, typhoons and the very worst that can strike a tall building: deadly fire. Engineers and builders in Japan, Taiwan and Canada tackle these and other tough problems as they attempt to overcome obstacles and set the stage for the construction of one of the most daring feats of engineering ever attempted.
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Extreme Engineering - Cooper River Bridge
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Builders in Charleston, South Carolina are hard at work on a record-breaker: a 500-foot, eight-lane link between the city of Charleston and the town of Mount Pleasant that, when complete, will become the longest cable-stay bridge in America. The trouble is, they're operating on shaky ground – smack in the middle of hurricane alley, on the most earthquake-prone piece of real estate on the East Coast and right in the path of the world's largest, heaviest container ships.
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Extreme Engineering - Widening the Panama Cana
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Everyday, ships the size of a city block transport goods through the Panama Canal – a strategic 50-mile shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans that allows captains to shave thousands of miles off their routes. For nearly a century, the canal has permitted almost every type of ship imaginable to sail between the oceans. But for the first time ever, ships are being turned away in droves because they're simply too wide to fit through the narrow locks. It's time for the Panama Canal to "loosen up!?
Follow teams of European and American engineers as they compete for a winning lock design that will widen the Canal. Project planners try to strike a balance between risk and reward – a faulty design could lead to an accident that cripples world trade, but the increased shipping revenue from a wider canal would be monumental. Join designers as they struggle to enlarge the aging lock chambers, great slabs of steel that currently pass within inches of ships' hulls. Meanwhile, landscape architects navigate through treacherous mountain passes and guard against mudslides – a constant threat on the isthmus. This may just be the most extreme engineering project since the original canal was built.
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Extreme Engineering - Tunneling Under the Alps
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To most of the world, the majestic Alps present a scene of wonder. But to European merchants and truckers, they present a troublesome and costly roadblock. Enter the ambitious AlpTransit Tunnel.
At just over 56 miles, this Swiss monster is the longest tunnel in the world. That is, it will be once workers complete this enormous project. Follow a team of miners as they risk death beneath billions of pounds of mountain, slowly but surely carving out massive support and maintenance tunnels. For the main channel, engineers use custom-designed TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines) – 250 feet long, 33 feet in diameter, with 500-pound drilling heads that pound the rock into submission.
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Extreme Engineering - Kuala Lumpur Mega Tunnel
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Extreme Engineering unveils some of the most ambitious architectural plans of our times. Some are theoretical; others are in the works. But each of these modern marvels poses challenges that stretch the definition of what's possible. Watch as jaw-dropping computer animation and first-hand accounts from builders, designers and engineers breathe life into the most extreme construction projects ever conceived.
Fed up with devastating damage caused by a spate of recent floods, the Malaysian government has given the go-ahead for an unprecedented solution: construction of a six-mile long, 20-foot high storm drain directly under Kuala Lumpur – the country's capital city – that will siphon water from the city's airport to a holding pond out of town. To offset the cost of the $525 million dollar project, engineers have devised a way to enable the tunnel to serve double duty as a toll road for commuters, creating the only fast way into and out of the city.
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Extreme Engineering - Subways in America
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Manhattan's skyline may be world famous, but the Big Apple's most impressive engineering feat lies underground. The New York subway became the word's largest mass transit system shortly after it opened in 1904. Today, it carries fully one-third of all mass transit passengers in the United States. But after decades of neglect, New York's once great subway is nearing collapse.
Follow one of the most ambitious public works projects in American history: the complete overhaul of the New York subway. This enormous renovation effort will transform the city's subways and commuter rails into the most technologically advanced mass transit system in the world – that is, if all goes as planned. Join structural engineers as they grapple with the difficulties of updating the transit system while keeping it open to the public. And, watch as city planners work to strike a balance between attracting even more people to the city that never sleeps...and transporting them effectively.
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Extreme Engineering - Millau Viaduct
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In a remote corner of southern France, where the Tarn River cuts a deep, nearly impassable gorge through the countryside, a traffic crisis is brewing. Anxious vacationers from the north and long-haul truckers from the south can count on traffic jams of up to two hours as they inch their way down, across and up the treacherous, winding roads that offer the only passage from one side of the gorge to the other.
Follow a group of visionary designers and engineers who are committed to relieving the Tarn bottleneck and opening up the region to the rest of Europe by building a massive bridge to leap across the 1.3-mile wide chasm. When it's completed, the Millau Viaduct will stand as the world's highest bridge and will form the last connection in a major highway linking Spain and Italy with Paris.
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Extreme Engineering - Space Tower
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Witness construction of Spain's strangest skyscraper: the 700-foot tall Torre Espacio, a.k.a., the Space Tower. It's the only skyscraper in the world where every single floor plan is completely different – a design feature dictated by the crazy, spiraling shape of the structure. Support columns tilt at weird angles, and the concrete forms used to layout each floor change as the building rises.
Join host Danny Forster and the Tower crew as they struggle to build one entire level of the skyscraper in just a week. They'll fashion the forms that shape the unique layout of that particular floor plan. They'll lift massive support structures, wrestling them into place. And they'll fire up the Putzmeister – a state-of-the-art pump powerful enough to blast thousands of tons of concrete from the ground to the upper floors, hundreds of feet above.
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Extreme Engineering - Gotthard Tunnel
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The cutting edge of technological infrastructure, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is set to become the world's longest rail tunnel, creating a flat rail link for future travel through the Alps. Trains will be able to race at speeds exceeding 250 km/h, and passengers will be able to travel the length and breadth of the mighty Alps with ease.
But, such a project doesn't come without risks. With temperatures plummeting to sub-zero levels during harsh winters, boring the tunnel has become a slow, uncomfortable task for drilling teams. And with the arrival of spring, thawing ice creates floods that further hinder the project. Moreover, the unexpectedly high levels of quartz dust pose a serious health risk to the workers. Join engineers as they battle a tight schedule, cruel conditions and the whims of mother nature to complete what will ultimately be one of the longest-running, most impressive construction projects ever.
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Extreme Engineering - Oakland Bay Bridge
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Follow some of the top bridge builders and engineers in the country as they try to tackle the biggest construction project in California history – the new Oakland Bay Bridge. Expected to be the most heavily trafficked bridge in the nation, this $2.8 billion monster will span the East Bay, connecting San Francisco and Oakland. The project was due to be finished in 2003. But now, it's looking more like 2007. While there's enormous pressure to stay on schedule, the daily, unexpected difficulties associated with building a two-mile, earthquake-proof road over 300 feet of water are tough to beat.
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Extreme Engineering - Woodrow Wilson Bridge
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One of America's most ambitious construction projects is currently underway on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The 40-year-old Woodrow Wilson bridge, which carries drivers over the Potomac River while allowing boats to safely use the heavily trafficked water below, has proven inadequate for the demands of the 21st century. But, engineers have devised a solution: an updated, draw-span design that will accommodate increased traffic both above and below. Watch as the 2,000-ton bridge is shipped by barge from Florida to Maryland and carefully lifted into place, using precariously balanced strand jacks in the water. Then, see how workers install the massive concrete support piers – so huge that a special vehicle is commissioned to transport them to the site.
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Extreme Engineering - Boston's Big Dig
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Witness the final stages of one of the largest, most technically challenging infrastructure projects in American history: Boston's Big Dig. An effort to alleviate the city's notorious traffic congestion by burying a super-highway 120 feet below the city's surface, it's a project that will rival the pyramids in terms of sheer engineering marvel.
Engineers and city planners have worked on the project for a dozen years, and are now only three years from completion. Join them as they explain how this subterranean artery will work. Ten lanes of asphalt will burrow beneath the heart of downtown, snaking above and below existing subway lines – and within inches of skyscrapers – to relieve gridlock and reduce carbon monoxide emissions by 12 percent. It's a gargantuan undertaking, costing more than $14 billion and shifting enough dirt to fill 15 football stadiums. But, while computer animation demonstrates the tunnel's resistance to massive earthquakes, technicians reveal that a simple two-car accident in the belly of the multi-lane beast could sink the entire project. Could Boston's Big Dig be the answer to the city's transit troubles, or will it drive motorists to seek higher ground?
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Extreme Engineering - Turning Torso
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I couldn't find any info on this episode, if someone does find it please let me know so i will put it up here. Thanks!
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Extreme Engineering - Dubai's Ski Resort
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Head to one of the hottest regions on the planet – United Arab Emirates – for a look at the coolest engineering project yet: a ski resort in the middle of a desert. Rising from the sea of sand that surrounds the Arabian peninsula's most vibrant city, this impressive concrete structure will use 23 massive air conditioners to maintain an indoor temperature of 30 degrees Fahrenheit – in a country where the average high temperature reaches the low 100s in the summer months.
But before the five ski slopes and multiple half pipes can be opened to the public, engineers must finish installing the upper portion of the resort. With the foundation and most of the ground-level attractions complete, the goal is to raise the 4,000-ton top-level section and carefully fit it into place. Watch as workers slowly hoist the structure off the desert floor, using a complex system of steel cables – all the while monitoring the ascent for any sign of buckling or cracking in the straining steel.
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"In politica, prostia nu este un handicap". - Napoleon Bonaparte
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