Mega Engineering takes us inside monumental future build projects, for a high stakes look at tomorrow's extreme engineering. In each episode, we'll see one of these projects go up before our very eyes. Using visually spectacular CGI, Mega Engineering presents the high tech obstacles that must be overcome and how technology is advancing today to accommodate the needs of these jawdropping structures of tomorrow.
Three New Builds premiering later in 2009. Stay Tuned!
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DOME OVER HOUSTON
Houston, Texas is in peril. The country's fourth most populous city faces hurricanes, heat, and the growing consequences of global warming. Only a radical solution can save the city, a solution that may lie with a massive dome, 1,500 feet high and a mile in diameter that will rise over the city center. To build the dome will require innovative engineering and construction on an unprecedented scale, with lessons, materials, and techniques drawn from around the world. From the Eden Project, the world's largest geodesic domes, to a tiny factory in Bremen, Germany, which manufactures a revolutionary plastic, the idea of a city-sized dome could finally become a reality.
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BERING STRAIT TUNNEL
The Bering Strait tunnel would connect Russia and Alaska, creating a high-speed rail line, freight route, and a crucial oil pipeline. Twice as long as the channel tunnel, it would be the most ambitious and expensive tunneling project ever attempted. To build it, massive Tunnel Boring Machines would start on both sides of the strait -- 64 miles apart -- and meet in the middle. On either side, workers would lay almost 4,000 miles of railway to connect the nearest rail heads to the tunnel. All this would have to be built in some of the most difficult conditions anywhere on the planet: permafrost regions, mountains and summer swamps, and an entire region known for frequent large magnitude earthquakes that put everything, and everyone, at constant risk.
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CITY AT SEA
New Orleans is under siege. Devastating floods caused by global warming and rising sea levels have brought the city to its knees. The old defenses -- levees and canals -- can't be counted on any longer. But surprisingly, some engineers are saying the only way for New Orleans to escape the water is to build a floating city: a New New Orleans, buoyed up by the water, not drowning under it. Long a dream for engineers, science has finally caught up theory. Innovations in nautical design, material science, and maritime construction have made it possible. But much more remains to be done. The city will have to survive killer waves, repel pirate attacks, and dodge hurricanes. The stakes are sky high, but the Big Easy is up to the challenge.
