Top 20 of most impressive construction sites in 2015

Between tunnels, dams, cultural spaces and high-speed lines, take a look at wide range of colossal construction sites. Europe-construction-equipment.com, gives you its ranking of the Top 20 construction sites.

N°20. The Philarmonie in Paris – France

© Yves Chanoit

• Cité de la Musique in Paris
• Duration : April 2009 – January 2015
• Two buildings : concert hall, amphitheatre, museum, media library, exhibition rooms, rehearsal spaces.

N°19. The Louvre d’Abu Dhabi – Saudi Arabia

© Louvre Abu Dhabi

• Cultural alliance between Abu Dhabi and France
• Duration : 2009 – 2015
• Floor space : 64 000 m²
• 900 works landed by French museum

N°18. Tunnel Tuen Mun-Check Lap Kok – Hong Kong, China

© Bouygues Construction

• Start : may 2015
• Tunnel : 4,2 km long and 50 m deep
• Biggest boring machine in the world : 17,6m diameter
• 800 workers on the site
• Decompression airlock built under the river for workers (pressure superior to 5 bars)

N°17. Riyad subway – Saudi Arabia

© BACS

• Two new subway lines
• Duration : 2014 – 2018
• Subway line 1 : 38 km, 22 stations with 4 possible connections
• The site wants the LEED (Leadership, Energy and Environmental Design) certification

N°16. Hexagone Balard – Paris, France

© Gullhem Vellut

• New French Defense ministry
• Duration : 2012-2015
• 13 000 workers (up to 2 500 at the same time)
• Surface : 320 000 m²
• Gather 9 300 agents from the three armies each day

N°15. Barrage Grand Inga – Democratic Republic of Congo

© Radio Okapi : Barrage Inga 1

• Project of hydro dams on the Congo river to feed 500 million families throughout Africa
• Duration : october 2015 –
• 3 steps : construction of a small dam (Inga 3), rehabilitation of two others already in place and construction of a mega structure (Grand Inga).  15 kilometers of lines for electric transport
• Grand Inga production capacity : 40 000 megawatts

N°14. Bouregreg bridge – Rabat, Morocco

© Cityscape

• Biggest bridge in the Arabic world and Africa
• Duration : april 2011 – june 2015
• 950 meters long
• Bridge in two parts : 750 meters (20 shrouds and 2 pylons for a 200 meter height) and 5 spans mesuring 200 metres in total
• 200 workers

N°13. Eko Atlantic Island – Lagos, Nigeria

© Eko Atlantic

• Create the « Dubaï of Africa »
• Duration : 2007 – 2016 (first phase)
• Artificial island of 25 km² (6km² will be sold when completed)
• 82 000 tonnes of aggregate and 140 million tonnes of sands used every day
• 3 000 building to build
• In the end : 250 000 inhabitants and 150 000 workers on the island

N°12. Eurasia Tunner – Istanbul, Turkey

© AvrasyaTüneli

• Tunnel under the Bosphorus in Istanbul to connect the European and Asian continents
• Duration : april 2014 – end 2016
• 5,4 km long
• Time to cross the strait : 15 minutes (against 1h40 at the moment)

N°11. Matmut-Atlantique stadium – Bordeaux, France

© Matmut Atlantique

• New Bordeaux stadium
• Duration : november 2012 – june 2015
• Up to 45 000 seatss (with 42 000 seated seats)
• 1^st  connected stadium in France (high resolution Wi-Fi)
• Accueillera plusieurs matchs de l’UEFA Euro 2016, organisé en France

N°10. Hallandsås train tunnels – Skåne region, Sweden

© Vinci

• Longest train tunnels in Sweden
• Duration : 2005-2015
• 5,5 km long for an inside diametre of  9 meters
• Mountain seen as not drillable
• Goal : have 24 trains each day (against 4 today)

N°9. Toshka project or « New Valley » – Egypt

© Jerome Bon

• Irrigation project in Egypt with a canal in order to unclog the Nile Valley
• Duration : 1999 – 2017
• 90% of the Egyptian population lives in the Nile delta
• Water pumped from the Nile and Lake Nasser then poured in the Cheikh Sayed canal (72 km to the north)
• Pumping station unloads 25 million cubic meter of water per day
• In the long term : irrigate 226 800 hectares

N°8. High-power line between France and Spain – Baïxas, France and Santa Llogaia, Spain

© RTE

• Electric interconnection between France and Spain
• Duration : 2012 – 2015 (project that was stopped by opponents in the 80s)
• Very high-power line : 65 km (with 8,5km in a tunnel dug in the Pyrenees)
• 2 000 megawatts that is 320 000 volts continuously
• Technology of a conversion station : the alternatif voltage is made into direct voltage

N°7. Widening of the Panama canal – Panama

© Canal de Panamá

• Duration : 2007 – june 2015
• Two new locks on the Atlantic and Pacific sides : 427 meters long and 55 meters wide
• Boats with up to 14 000 containers will be able to enter the canal against 5 000 container boats at the moment)

N°6. Saint Gothard's railway tunnel – Alps, Switzerland

© Wikimedia

• Longest (57km) and deepest (2500 below surface) railway tunnel in the world
• Duration : 1999 – june 2016
• Goal : connect Switzerland to Italy by train (through the Alps)
• Air-conditioned tunnel to have 28°C all year round (instead of 48°C)
• 2 600 workers on the construction site

N°5. Escondida Water supply system – Atacama desert, Chile

© Black&Veatch

• Project : supply water to the biggest and higest open-pit copper mine in the world
• Duration : 2013 –
• Desalination factory at the Caleta Coloso harbour
• 2 pipelines of 180 km long and 1,07 meter wide
• 4 high pressure pumps will bring the water to the mine reservoirs at 3 200 meters

N°4. Kingdom Tower – Djeddah, Saudi Arabia

© Jeddah Economic Company

• Build the higest tour in the world
• Duration : may 2014 – 2018
• 1 km high (275 floors)
• Surface : 25 hectares on the ground and 530 000 m² habitable
• 3 towers : two side ones to hold the highest one
• 59 lifts (10 meters per second)

N°3. Hong-Kong bridge– Macao, China

© Bouygues Construction

• Bridge that connects Hong Kong to Macao, as well as Zhuhai
• Duration : 2009 – 2016
• Bridge length : 40 kilometres
• Piles up to 180 meters under river level (75 meters on average)
• Travelling time between both cities : 45 minutes (4 hours at the moment)

N°2. Containment structure – Tchernobyl, Ukraine

© Novarka

• Building of a « sarcophagus » around the damaged reactor of Tchernobyl to help in its dismantling
• Duration : until 2017
• 200 tonnes of radioactive wast still in the reactor
• Structure lifespan : 100 years
• Structure : 30 000 tonnes, 110 meters high (in two parts)
• 2 800 workers

N°1. High speed line South-Europe-Atlantic -  Tours/Bordeaux, France

© LISEA

• Biggest construction site in France and continental Europe
• Duration : may 2012 – july 2017
• Line of 380 km (with 40 km of connections to the classic railway)
• 50 preventive archeology campaigns on 3 000 hectares
• 800 works of ecological continuity built
• 500 works of art and 24 viaducts to build
• 8 500 workers
• Goal : connect Paris to Bordeaux in 2h05