MetaFilter posts tagged with construction

The amazingly exciting intersection of construction materials and bacteria.

lazaruslong — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:25:16 -0800

The Bay Bridge is now closed

gingerbeer — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:51:06 -0800

The San Francisco Bay Bridge has been shut down for the weekend to allow workers to roll a section of the old bridge away, and roll in a temporary section, while they build the new permanent bridge. Download the video here showing how they'll do it. Web cams let you keep an eye on the whole thing. BART is running 24 hours, which inspired at least one pajama party on the BART trains. Everyone's gearing up for all sorts of transportation confusion, despite months of warnings and efforts to redirect people. Hopefully, everyone headed for Burning Man has already left the city. All of this work is to build a replacement for the Eastern span of the Bay Bridge, the section damaged in the 1989 earthquake. Yes, it has taken 20 years to replace it. The whole thing is being filmed by National Geographic, for a show on "unprecedented construction feats." Google Earth will show you what the finished product will look like (turn 3D Buildings on). Previously, with much of the history behind the construction.

The Wrekin Ruby

Electric Dragon — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:21:12 -0800

When Wrekin Construction went into administration last week, it blamed the Royal Bank of Scotland for demanding repayment of an overdraft. However, the 2007 accounts show that among the assets of the company is a ruby it called the "Gem of Tanzania". Wrekin had bought the stone off one of its shareholders for £11m worth of shares - more than four times the record for a single ruby at auction. The valuation ostensibly came from an Italian gemological institute. It denies all knowledge of the stone:

Note 13 of Wrekin’s 2007 accounts states: “The fair value of the ruby gemstone was determined by a professional valuer at the Instituto Gemmologico Italiano (sic) based in Valenza, Italy, on 31 August 2007.” Loridana Prosperi, a gemologist at the head office of the Istituto Gemmologico Italiano in Milan, said: “That is impossible, because we were on holiday on August 31 2007.” She said IGI never assesses the price of gemstones, only the quality – and the Valenza office does not even do that.

Mitch Haile's Office

odinsdream — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 05:37:11 -0800

Mitch Haile's office requires some explanation.

For all your infrastructure news needs

Horace Rumpole — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:34:20 -0800

Infrastructurist. Although the blog is only a few days old, they've already debunked some of the myths of 24, interviewed Michael Dukakis, and grappled with Amtrak economics.

We are defined by those parts of the earth that we haven’t changed.

1f2frfbf — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:58:06 -0800

The New Road. A photo essay by Rob Amberg on the building of I-26 through Madison County in the mountains of North Carolina. via

The Lackawanna Cut-Off

parudox — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 23:35:36 -0800

A glance will show / Why Phoebe Snow / Prefers this route / To Buffalo.
And Phoebe's right / No route is quite / As short as Road / of Anthracite.

In 1908 the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad began work on the New Jersey Cut-Off to make its New York to Buffalo mainline (the Road of Anthracite so liked by Phoebe Snow) even shorter and faster. It was to have no grade crossings, and was to be as straight and level as possible — through hilly terrain. The 28-mile Lackawanna Cut-Off, as it is now known, was built over three years, cost $11 million, and was an engineering marvel of massive reinforced concrete bridges, enormous cuts, and the largest railroad embankment in the world. All of this has been abandoned for years, though there are plans afoot to restore the Cut-Off for commuter rail. All 73 bridges and culverts on the Lackawanna Cut-Off were made entirely of concrete. The route shaved 11 miles off the New York City to Buffalo trip, with a maximum grade of 0.6% and total height fluctuation of only 11 feet. The two big bridges: Delaware Viaduct and Paulin's Kill Viaduct. Can you spot the Cut-Off on a terrain map? (That's Pequest Fill.) The DL&W followed up with the Summit Cut-Off in Pennsylvania, building two more huge concrete bridges — the Martin's Creek Viaduct and the rather more impressive Tunkhannock Viaduct, which is possibly the largest one to date. The New York Times ran stories on the completions of the two cut-offs. There is some more information about the construction here. You can also read a bit about working on the Lackawanna Railroad. The beginning of the end for the DL&W was the destruction unleashed by Hurricane Diane in 1955. The rails on the Lackawanna Cut-Off were removed in the 1980s; the Summit Cut-Off still survives with one track in service. Naturally people explore the abandoned Paulin's Kill Viaduct and other portions. If you're ever in northwest New Jersey, you can tour the Lackawanna Cut-Off. As for the Summit Cut-Off, you can see much of it from U.S. 11 north of Scranton, which follows the old alignment. See also Steamtown in Scranton.

Prefabricated Housing

netbros — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:52:05 -0800

Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling comprises a selective survey of prefabrication in architecture, represented by a timeline, and a building project of contemporary prefabricated homes on the MoMA west lot that is available until October 20th. Home Delivery examines this architectural form through historical documents, full-scale reassemblies, and films that trace the roots of prefabrication in the work of individual architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Jean Prouvé, and Richard Rogers and corporations such as Lustron, and in the imaginative systems of other influential figures, including R. Buckminster Fuller.

Little boxes on the hillside

le morte de bea arthur — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:19:59 -0800

Friday ~~Flash~~ Java Fun - 'Building Houses With Side Views' Entertaining Java game/exercise/doodad. A nice little Java game/exercise/doodad where you place blocks in a three-dimensional grid so as to match three different projections. Then, for maximum points, you try to find the minimum number of blocks that will solve the problem. Twenty puzzles in all. Perfect for wasting half an hour.

Grief in the Rubble

homunculus — Sun, 25 May 2008 00:36:54 -0800

Chinese Are Left to Ask Why Schools Crumbled. "A staggering number of students died as schools collapsed in the May 12 earthquake, and grieving parents are speaking out about shoddy construction."

New China?

clearly — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:51:09 -0800

The Olympic Boom is shaping a new Beijing. These fancy new venues and skyscrapers are being built largely by migrant workers facing a harsh reality. The non-stop construction has also threatened to make these "green games" brown. The city may be smoggy and mistreated migrant workery now, but don't you worry, a series of measures will be taken to curb the pollution for the events.

The Assembly of Space Shuttle Discovery

grouse — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:54:14 -0800

The Assembly of Space Shuttle Discovery

Don't Panic

homunculus — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:30:43 -0800

Man buried alive saved by air trapped in his hat. [Via MoFi.]

MetroDream

parudox — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:45:01 -0800

Russos takes photos of Moscow Metro construction. Also of a half-abandoned river port, a cool bridge being put together, and an old underground nuclear submarine base. But mostly of the Metro, behind the scenes. (Don't ask me how he gets access.) The Balaklava submarine base photos were actually the fodder for previous posts. And if you want conventional views of the (beautiful) Moscow Metro, go look elsewhere. A few of his photos. One blogger's sampling; another's. An index of old posts. Posts by tags: abandoned, industrial, aviation, devices, "other" metro, megadevices, metro, metro build, escalator. Elsewhere around Balaklava. The Neglinka (river under Moscow): 1 2 3 Tunnel vision. Tunnels: 906, 938, 940. Point D. Point S. TBMs: Taking delivery, plant that makes parts for them, lowering Julia down, taking apart Claudia, more. Borovitskaya: in the station, on the tracks, into the tunnel. Dostoevskaya station tunnels got a bit rusty: 1 2 Sretenskij bul'var is amazing. Trubnaya is pretty good too. Test rides and checking dimensions: 1 2 (Bonus: Victory Day train: 1 2 3 4. Photo chronicle of Sergei Kirov. Cats.)

Excavation Ballet

carsonb — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:01:43 -0800

Pretty Big Dig
A dance film by Anne Troake that gently illustrates the assimilation of technology. QT video If you are interested, ArtsAlive.ca has an excellent collection of ballet and dance videos.

beautiful ways to span a gap or a river

nickyskye — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:01:34 -0800

Construction of the World's Highest Bridge, Millau Viaduct in France, which is slightly higher than the Eiffel Tower. It is now included in a list of Google Earth extremes. World's most interesting bridges. Gallery of beautiful world bridges. Le viaduc de Millau, in French. Previously. Images of pretty images of bridges from around the world (no captions). Types of bridge construction basics.

Ironworkers Above The City

jonson — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:21:39 -0800

Amazing photo sequence from the Philadelphia Inquirer on the ironworkers building the top floors (45 - 55) of the Comcast Center. Not safe for those with Vertigo. Via.

Oh the huge manatee

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 27 May 2007 12:03:40 -0800

The Goodyear Blimp: Building, filling, painting, testing. Structure. People. Signage. Flying.

A new meaning to rainbow gradient.

solistrato — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:28:53 -0800

Jen Stark creates sculptures from construction paper.

Attack of the Clones

kika — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:51:48 -0800

Dutch artist Bert Simons, suffering from a mid-life crisis, decided to clone himself to become immortal. By means of state-of-the-art computer multiplication techniques he found a way for you to build your own Bert clone! (1.2 MB PDF) He is currently in the process to clone a female specimen. (NSFW: cardboard nudity) [via]

Buy a house or you will die.

brain_drain — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 09:43:57 -0800

If you continue to wait, you may never be able to afford to get into the housing market. The National Association of Home Builders wants you to buy a home now. Should you wait? No, no, no, no! Via Housing Panic.

The alpha nail

jaimev — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 09:15:36 -0800

"This is a major innovation...and in places that are affected by high winds and earthquakes, it looks like it's going to make a big difference." And it only adds about $15 to the cost of an average 2000 sq. ft. house - the Bostich HurriQuake nail.

Demolition Art

monju_bosatsu — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 14:30:14 -0800

Medianera is the spanish word for the wall that separates two buildings. When one of those buildings is knocked down, the remaining wall often carries impressions left behind by the now-demolished living space. Flickr pools: [1] [2].

Spider web construction

Mitheral — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:10:09 -0800

Spider web construction gallery is a collection of diagrams of the path a spider takes when constructing it's web. The diagrams are colour coded by construction phase. [VIA MoFi's very first post.]

China blows up temporary barrier of three gorges dam.

tnai — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 05:28:11 -0800

Using enough explosives to topple 400 10-storey buildings, China has blown up [bbc news .asx file] a temporary barrier used to hold water back from the controversial Three Gorges Dam.