2017 promises to be rich in amazing construction and engineering projects. Some of them are already nearing completion, while others are just beginning. Before you are the seven most expensive construction projects in the world on this moment.
Complexity and functionality engineering projects Today they 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
Project cost:$82 billion
Project cost:$78 billion
The idea of turning the waters 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 a great turnaround Siberian rivers for the needs of Central Asia.
The grandiose project will allow watering northern regions China due to 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 northern rivers, at the same time connecting them into a convenient transport network. In addition, the canals will provide water supplies largest reservoirs north of China.
The construction process will use the infrastructure of one of the largest engineering projects of antiquity - the Grand Canal. It was created over 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.
Dubailand Amusement Park
A country: UAE
Project cost:$64 billion
The megalomaniac amusement park will open in 2025 in Dubai. The next wonder of the world, built in the Arabian desert, will cover an area of 185 square kilometers and consist of more than two hundred entertainment areas. Dubailand will be built along federal highway Emirates and is designed for a flow of 200 thousand visitors daily.
In addition to amusement parks, Dubailand will also feature the world's largest hotel with 6,500 rooms and artificially created nature reserves. wildlife, aquariums and several giant shopping centers. The UAE authorities are betting big on the amusement park and are expecting an unprecedented influx of tourists wanting to look at the wonder of the world, built right in the middle of the desert.
London Crossrail rail system
A country: Great Britain
Project cost:$23 billion
The massive expansion of London's train and commuter rail system has become one of the world's most complex engineering projects. recent years. By 2020, about 42 kilometers of new tunnels will be built in the city and more than 40 new stations will open. London Crossrail is currently Europe's largest construction project.
The transport system will connect the eastern and western suburbs of London with the center. Some of the roads will be laid on the surface, and under the city center they will pass underground. Crossrail's design capacity is 24 trains of ten carriages per hour in each direction. Maximum speed trains on surface sections will be 160 kilometers per hour, in tunnels - up to 100 kilometers per hour. The opening of the new network will significantly reduce the load on the transport system of London and its suburbs.
Royal Tower in Jeddah
A country: Saudi Arabia
Project cost:$20 billion
The tallest building in the world is being built 32 kilometers north of the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The 1,007-meter-high skyscraper will become the center of the new Kingdom Center district and the first building in human history to be more than one kilometer high. The initiator of the project was the Saudi Prince Al-Walid ibn Talal, nephew of the King of Saudi Arabia and one of richest people in the Middle East.
Construction is taking place in an uninhabited area in the middle of the Arabian desert. Along with the tower, a satellite city with residential areas and office centers will appear here. According to the developer's plans, the tower will have 167 floors, but until the completion of its construction exact height remains unknown. By mid-2016, 42 floors of the skyscraper had been built, after which the project was suspended due to financing problems.
Hong Kong - Zhuhai - Macau overpass
A country: China
Project cost: $17.1 billion
Series of bridges and underwater tunnels will be built in the Pearl River Delta. This region is the most economically important for China. There are three megacities here, each of which plays special role in the country's economy.
Zhuhai is one of the most powerful industrial centers in China. Macau is the capital of the gambling business, and Hong Kong is a city-state with a powerful financial system and economics. The unification of these three cities with a single transport system will be a strong impetus for additional development the entire region.
Bridges and tunnels will be built across the bay, which carries heavy maritime traffic. The lion's share of China's export cargo is sent from here, so the engineers were faced with the task of not interfering sea vessels. On the border territorial waters Hong Kong's overpass goes underwater into a 7-kilometer-long tunnel, leaving a wide passage for ocean-going ships. In the middle of the bay, the overpass comes to the surface and goes further along an overwater bridge more than 30 kilometers long.
Chinese officials promise that all work will be completed in 2017. The costs will be shared by the authorities of Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China.
Beijing International Airport
A country: China
Project cost:$13 billion
The new Daxing International Air Hub in Beijing is planned to be built by 2025. It will help relieve congestion at the existing international airport, which can no longer cope with the influx of passengers.
Daxing is projected to become the largest air hub in the world. It will use an integrated transport system: Airplane passengers will be able to transfer to high-speed trains that will take them to other regions of China. To get to the platform, they will only need to go down to the underground tiers of the airport. In particular, a “bullet train” will depart from Daxing Airport, which will connect Beijing and Hong Kong. Paths for high speed train will be partially laid underground, and the trains will move from average speed at 300 kilometers per hour.
It is expected that the airport will be able to accommodate more than 70 million passengers, 2 million tons of cargo and more than 600 thousand aircraft annually.
Money not only rules the world, but also changes it in the literal sense of the word. Over the past 100 years, humanity has been able to build massive and grandiose structures in record time. People know how to build tunnels through mountains, turn rivers around, build islands and many other things that seem unrealistic at first glance. At the same time, money decides a lot in terms of quality materials and work. We offer the 10 most expensive construction projects in the history of mankind.
The tunnel is built under the strait between north coast France and Great Britain. British and French companies invested $22.4 billion in its construction, and today it is overseen by the international company Eurotunnel. Such high price work was due high requirements to safety, infrastructure, environmental friendliness of the project, which ultimately amounted to 80% of the total budget. It began to be built in 1988, and in 1994 it already began work. During construction, 10 workers died. The tunnel consists of three parts: two railway tracks and highway. Length underground tunnel- 50 km, and the diameter is from 8 to 4 m. Several fires occurred in the tunnel, which caused serious damage, due to which it was closed for several months. The security service often catches people who illegally seek to cross the border between France and the UK.
The Great Boston Tunnel cost taxpayers $23.1 billion. The goal of the project was to divert traffic from the main highway in downtown Boston into a tunnel called the Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Tunnel. The project faced a number of financial and administrative problems, including errors that cost $400 million to correct. During construction, a man was killed when a concrete structure fell directly on his car. In addition, during construction, workers came across sunken ships that were of historical and archaeological value, and therefore had to undergo examination, which took a lot of time. Construction of the tunnel took 10 years.
Construction of Kansai International Airport cost $29 billion. It is located in the middle of Osaka Bay, Japan, on a man-made island that was built taking into account the high seismicity of the region and the threat of flooding. Another reason for the construction of the airport on artificial island there was a warning of complaints from the public. Over the years, the island was reinforced with metal piles, columns and structures to prevent it from sinking under water. The second terminal was opened in 2012. Terminal 2 and Terminal 1 are connected free of charge by bus route.
The work, which began in 2015, has already required more funding than planned. This high speed Railway is one element of President Obama's large-scale project to unite the entire country. The project's executive director, Jeff Morales, said that although the project will cost $33 billion, it will be worth it because it will use the latest technology. The road will connect Merced and Bakersfield, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The planned completion date is 2029.
This new business the city center is built on reclaimed land near Seoul, South Korea, and cost more than 40 billion dollars. This is a high-tech area of the city with ubiquitous WiFi, automatic system waste recycling and other technologies and innovations. The area will feature replicas of some of the world's most famous landmarks, including Central Park New York. There will be an island on which rabbits and deer will live freely. The area is being specially built to attract business and tourists. It is also close to Incheon International Airport.
Construction of the amusement park was stopped in 2008 due to a lack of funding and the financial crisis, but it resumed in 2013. Its cost was $76 billion. If construction is completed, it will be the most expensive and grandest in the field of tourism and entertainment. There are plans to build a Disney theme park, an IMAX theater, and other facilities that are based on Arabian tales, including Tales of the 1001 Nights. The impetus for the construction of the amusement park was the desire to make life in Dubai interesting for families with children and tourists.
When completed, the King Abdullah Economic City will cost $86 billion. It is located an hour's drive from Mecca, a major attraction for Muslims and tourists visiting this region of Saudi Arabia. The city will have the best hotels, luxury villas, prestigious universities and a big airport. The construction of the city is being carried out by Emaar Properties, which has extensive experience in constructing the tallest buildings in the world, including the Burj Khalifa skyscraper. At the center of the Economic City will be the Ethraa area with high-tech infrastructure, which will be serviced by Ericsson.
Kashgan, located in the Caspian Sea, represents the largest oil field found in the last forty years. 116 billion dollars were spent on its development and infrastructure construction. Starting in 2017, 90,000 barrels will be produced here daily. Total oil produced will amount to 13 billion barrels. Among the difficulties encountered during the implementation of the project were leaking pipes and a number of other breakdowns. The fact is that the field is under great pressure and drilling here is very dangerous. The project partners included companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, China National Petroleum Corp, KazMunaiGas, INPEX and AgipKCO.
Modular research space station, known as the International Space Station, cost $150 million. Investors were many countries, but the main participants were the USA, Russia, Canada, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. By 2020, the station, having spent its service life for 26 years, will be flooded in the ocean. Each station module, consisting of Russian and American space rockets space shuttles, was created on Earth, and were brought together in space. For two years, while the station was being assembled, it was not used. Operation of the station began from the moment equipment, provisions and sleeping compartments were delivered on board.
In 2015, construction of the Interstate Highway System cost taxpayers $459 billion. The project was initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. But he thought not only about the transport system, but also about national security. The project began in 1956, and it was at this time that new routes were created. The first state to complete construction of its section of the system was Nebraska in 1974. The final section, including I-70, was completed in 1992. Despite exceeding the stated budget and deadlines, the construction of the SMM had great importance for the US economy. The cost of transporting goods became 17% lower, and during Hurricane Katrina, it was along these roads that the population was successfully evacuated.
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 largest in the world transport hub on cargo turnover. The airport will be able to serve about 160 million passengers annually, and simultaneously accommodate about 200 aircraft, as well as transport 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 uniting the basins of the four largest rivers in China - the 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.
Chinese super city. Beijing is considered one of largest cities world, but Chinese authorities are planning to go even further, making the capital the center of the supercity of the future. The project will unite Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province into a single whole - a gigapolis with a size of 212 thousand square kilometers and a population of 130 million people.
American billionaire inventor Elon Musk in 2013 proposed a new vision of high-speed travel - Hyperloop (“hyperloop”). This is a large-scale system of vacuum pipes through which cabins with passengers must move at speeds close to supersonic. If the plan is realized, people will be able to travel from San Francisco to Los Angeles in half an hour.
Wanting to compete with the Panama Canal, in 2014 the Nicaraguan authorities approved the construction of their own intercontinental canal, three times longer. Despite the obvious benefits for shipping, some scientists believe that the project could lead to environmental disaster, destroying thousands of acres of forests and nature reserve- Lake Nicaragua.
By the end of 2018 energy company Nur Power plans to build a 100-kilometer solar farm that collects energy from the sun over part of the Sahara in Tunisia. The incredible plant could, in theory, supply enough electricity to Europe to power 2.5 million homes.
Dutch journalist Theis Zonneveld once jokingly remarked that the landscape of the Netherlands is flat; the country could use a real man-made mountain. Many unexpectedly liked the idea, and they began to implement it. A mountain about 2000 meters in height is planned to be erected as a tourist attraction and training place for athletes.
Over the past few years, Saudi Arabia has sought to transform Mecca into the Las Vegas of the Middle East. The crowning glory of this transformation is to be the Arbaj Kudai Hotel, a building the size of small town. Area of 1.4 million square meters, more than 10,000 rooms, four helipads... The project worth 3.5 billion dollars is planned to be completed in 2017.
In Shenzhen (China) they are planning to build something not only large, but also completely unique. Vertical business center in the form of a cloud, called Cloud Citizen, must be completely self-sufficient using solar and wind energy, collect rainwater and produce food on its own farms.
A city where all infrastructure is connected to the Internet, and the command center connects all residents with a single network. A city in which there will be no place for dirt, traffic jams and noise. This is Dholera - the future " smart city" in India. Subsequently, it is planned to build 23 more similar cities.
While cities are being built and mountains are being built in other parts of the world, new islands are being created in Azerbaijan. The Khazar Islands are an artificial archipelago of 55 islands in the Caspian Sea, the construction of which will begin this year. There will be a new airport there, cultural centers, parks and even a Formula 1 race track.
China plans to revive the Great Silk Road in a new look and radically change economic map peace. New way will become a corridor from Shanghai to Berlin, crossing China, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus and Germany, stretching for 12 thousand kilometers - almost a third of the globe.
But no matter how huge the current projects are, humanity always wants more. Even if new ideas cross all boundaries common sense. We present to you ten of the most ambitious projects planets.
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 expected: 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 economics for economies developing countries. However, even among the laggards there are already clear winners: the rich countries of the Persian Gulf, investing in the creation future infrastructure excess income from the sale of hydrocarbons. Such, for example, is the Masdar project in Abu Dhabi - not a technology park, but the whole city priced at $20 billion, designed by the British bureau 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 as big" World Center Walt Disney Resort in Florida and will become 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 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.
