Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/319134
I DA U N I V E R S A L M ay -J u n e 2 0 1 4 35 3. Three Gorges Dam China's unbridled engineering ambition is brilliantly illustrated by the insane scale of the ree Gorges Dam. e body of the dam was completed in 2006. e project attracted mass criticism for its impact on the environment and local inhabitants. More than a million people were displaced by the dam's reservoir, which is so large that some scientists expressed concerns about its seismic impact. However, it also controls fl ooding, which has devastated the river valley in the past. 4. Langeled Pipeline With a total length of 1,173 km, the Langeled Pipeline connects Nyhamna in Norway with Easington in the UK, and is currently the world's longest subsea gas pipeline. Langeled was developed to pipe Norway's natural gas to a power-hungry British market. It can pump a maximum of 25.5 billion m3 of gas a year. e pipeline was opened in two stages: the fi rst in October 2006, the second a year later. 5. Qingzang Tibet Railway Building the world's highest altitude railway on permafrost was never going to be easy, but once again Chinese engineers thought they'd give it a go anyway. e track runs from the city of Gol- mud in China, to Lhasa in Tibet, crossing some tough landscape along the way. e highest point is the Tanggula Pass, at just over 5000m. At the top of the engineering challenges was the para- doxical melting permafrost. e solution was to elevate the tracks a little, to keep the cool air circulating, and mount the tracks on columns driven deep enough to hit stable earth. e line also lays claim to having the highest rail tunnel in the world with the 1338m-long Fenghuoshan tunnel at 4905m above sea level. 6. Taipei 101 Okay, it's not the world's tallest building, but it still has some clever engineering to help it deal with Taiwan's signifi cant earthquake activity and typhoon season. Engineered by orton Tomasetti, the building is designed to cope with wind speeds up to 216kph and the strongest earthquakes expected to occur in cycles over thousands of years. As part of the strengthening measures required, the building contains a giant steel pendulum, which acts as a tuned mass damper. e strength of the foun- dations was put to the test when an earthquake struck during construction, toppling cranes from the incomplete structure, but leaving the core of the building undamaged. Continued on page 37