Comments on: 6 Massive Earth Moving Projects

By: TVSpy

TVSpy — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:06:12 +0000

Some of the Roman created engineering devices are amazing, they were built at such large scales. Caesar built a bridge across the Danube(I think it’s the danube) to get to the Gauls, he built it within a 2-3 days, had his army cross over it, then had his army go back across it and dismantled the bridge – all just to show that Caesar and Rome could go where they want when they want.

Rome also dug/built large ramparts near Jerusalem to be used for military attacks and lookouts. They still exist today.

By: hogwartsh

hogwartsh — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:10:13 +0000

Brian is right. The Kansai International Airport in Japan was built on an artificial island made from over 21 million cubic meters of earth (over 27.4 million cubic yards), and linked to the mainland by a 3 kilometer bridge. These steps were taken largely to avoid trouble in acquiring the land. If included on this list, it would come in third, beating the Three Gorges project, the NY subway, the Boston Big Dig and in all probability, the Delta Works as well. Kansai is now not even the only airport on an artificial island. It has been joined by Chubu Centrair and by the Hong Kong International Airport.

By: MagicBoy

MagicBoy — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:33:14 +0000

The Red River Floodway deserves a mention.It protects the city of Winnipeg from flooding. Construction of the Floodway started in October, 1962 and finished in March 1968, with 76.5 million cubic metres (2.75 billion cubic feet) of earth excavated. Way more than what was moved for the Suez Canal.

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:11:54 +0000

Mountaintop removal should be illegal, but the energy glut in this country is just going to perpetuate it (and other, almost-as-destructive procedures) until there’s no coal – and possibly no mountains – left. Kentucky writer Wendell Berry has written some powerful pieces about the environmental impact of the technique; it would be worth Googling if you’re interested. Certainly, the more people aware of the problem, the better the chance for eventual change.

Anyhow, I wanted to throw out one more project, this one from my hometown of Pikeville in eastern Kentucky. It’s a flood control project that actually has worked. At 12,000,000 cubic yards of earth, it’s actually pretty close to Big Dig numbers:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikeville_Cut-Through

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:48:03 +0000

I’m surprised you didn’t mention the leveling of entire mountains in Japan to build the airport.

By: Meghan

Meghan — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:33:44 +0000

Your numbers for the Three Gorges Dam don’t include the increased amount of erosion, which leads to increased sediment loads in the Yantzee. It is estimated that in 30-50 years, sediment buildup will make the dam nearly useless for energy production.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:33:22 +0000

Living in the Appalachian Mountains (yes, I live in Pittsburgh now, but I used to live in the mountains), I can say first hand how awful the coal mining procedures are. Beyond the very obvious issues with the mountaintop removal there are the issues with the other forms of earth moving…

For example – my highschool was built on old mines… and has sunk into the earth considerably for years releasing God knows what kinds of crap into the air as it slowly crumbles.

Fields in rural West Virginia are nearly impossible to plant because of the soil removal – my parents actually had to BUY truckloads of soil because 2 inches below the grass was just clay and rock.