5. International Airport of Kansai
Place: Japan
Total Expense: $24 Billion*
Completed Year: 1994
Constructed for Japan’s Kansai International Airport, the man-made island in Osaka Bay is one of the more grandiose buildings of the modern era. Work on the project started in 1987. To consolidate the clay in the bay, a million sand drains were employed. More than 25 million people use the 2.5-mile-long and 1.6-mile-wide island airport that Orix and Vinci SA, the sole bidder for the airport’s construction contract, built.
Civil Engineering Daily @Kansai International Airport / Facebook.com
The Kansai International Airport survived the 1995 Kobe earthquake mostly thanks to the sliding joints that were a part of its seismic engineering, although it is not unbreakable.
Although it was predicted that the airport would fall nineteen feet, the airport island had actually plummeted an incredible twenty-seven feet by 1999. Since then, the runways and taxiways have received an additional nearly eight inches of pavement.
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