Impossible Engineering s07e01 Dubais Impossible Island.eng Subtitles

00:00:02,380 --> 00:00:07,In this episode... Without a doubt, we
are breaking new ground.

00:00:07,620 --> 00:00:09,We are pushing the bounds of
engineering.

00:00:10,180 --> 00:00:16,A new city district rises from the
Arabian Sea, crowned by the world's

00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:18,biggest observation wheel.

00:00:19,480 --> 00:00:23,Things that 10 or 20 years ago, people
would have felt it's just not possible.

00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:24,It is possible now.

00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:25,It's really very exciting.

00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,And the pioneering historic innovations.

00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:29,Oh, man.

00:00:30,180 --> 00:00:31,This is amazing.

00:00:32,150 --> 00:00:36,What a beautiful, impressive, and
powerful bit of Kim.

00:00:37,490 --> 00:00:40,That make the impossible possible.

00:00:50,330 --> 00:00:57,Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is

00:00:57,170 --> 00:01:00,home to some of the most innovative
engineering on the planet.

00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:06,where each new build must push the
boundaries of what's possible in order

00:01:06,660 --> 00:01:08,stand out from the crowd.

00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:18,One man who knows what it takes to make
a mark on this ever -evolving city is

00:01:18,300 --> 00:01:19,Mohammed Al Mullah.

00:01:20,620 --> 00:01:24,Dubai has been able to prove that there
is no limit to your freedom of thinking.

00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:29,It's important that we keep pushing the
boundaries of engineering across every

00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:30,project we do.

00:01:31,509 --> 00:01:36,Dubai known to be bringing the best in
class in various aspects, from the

00:01:36,050 --> 00:01:37,tallest towers to the biggest airport.

00:01:39,410 --> 00:01:43,I'm sure Dubai in the next few months
will be another mega project that will

00:01:43,690 --> 00:01:44,announced.

00:01:45,810 --> 00:01:49,Once you have a dream, people will get
together and just help you to achieve

00:01:49,770 --> 00:01:50,that dream.

00:01:57,370 --> 00:02:02,Desert City is determined to keep
creating the most spectacular structures

00:02:02,070 --> 00:02:02,the world.

00:02:02,990 --> 00:02:07,But Dubai is quickly running out of its
coveted waterfront locations.

00:02:08,070 --> 00:02:11,So engineers now have to think outside
the box.

00:02:12,300 --> 00:02:15,The coastline in Dubai has a limited
stretch.

00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,You have certain type of tourists who
look for beach, so we must make sure we

00:02:19,940 --> 00:02:24,have enough beaches. We must extend the
coastline. It's very important for our

00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:28,survival to move forward in a very
competitive landscape.

00:02:29,900 --> 00:02:34,Creating land where there once was none
is a massive undertaking.

00:02:37,640 --> 00:02:40,And engineers in Dubai aren't just
creating land.

00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:48,They're thinking much bigger and
creating a whole new

00:02:48,380 --> 00:02:49,island.

00:02:52,100 --> 00:02:54,This is Blue Waters.

00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:08,Constructed from 28 .3 million cubic
feet of rock and
00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:10,.3 million cubic feet of sand,

00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:18,Blue Waters Island covers an area larger
than 12 New York City blocks and will

00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:23,be populated by a combination of
residential towers, shops, and five

00:03:23,340 --> 00:03:24,hotels.

00:03:24,920 --> 00:03:30,Its crowning glory is the Ein Dubai, an
observation wheel that stands an

00:03:30,220 --> 00:03:32,unprecedented 820 feet tall.

00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:35,When you arrive, you'll see the wheel.

00:03:35,660 --> 00:03:38,It will be a moment, a wow moment.

00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:42,I'm sure everybody's jaw will literally
drop and they'll just stand there in

00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:43,awe.

00:03:43,460 --> 00:03:48,But this multi -million dollar project
poses huge engineering challenges.

00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:55,Is it possible to create land where
there is nothing but sea?

00:03:56,500 --> 00:04:00,Blue Waters Island is a very challenging
project for us because that plant is

00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:01,not suitable for island construction.

00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:06,How do you make it strong enough to
support tower blocks and a

00:04:07,380 --> 00:04:09,Loose down, it's very limited in the
load that it can support.

00:04:10,220 --> 00:04:13,Typically, maybe 10 to 20 percent of
what you would expect on traditionally

00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:14,formed ground.

00:04:15,540 --> 00:04:19,And how do you build a wheel that towers
over every other wheel ever

00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:20,constructed?

00:04:21,380 --> 00:04:25,These cables have to be very strong, but
if we put all the tension in the

00:04:25,280 --> 00:04:27,bottom, we would just buckle the rim.

00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:30,Blue Water Island, we keep on pushing
our boundaries.

00:04:32,300 --> 00:04:35,This is the most challenging engineering
project happening in the world at the

00:04:35,860 --> 00:04:36,moment.

00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:41,It's going to take a top -notch team of
engineers to pull it all off.

00:04:42,420 --> 00:04:44,Okay, let's go.

00:04:47,680 --> 00:04:51,Civil engineer Cone Sweers is overseeing
island construction.

00:04:52,340 --> 00:04:54,It's a good day for surveying today, I
think.

00:04:55,480 --> 00:05:00,To find the perfect location, the team
needs to uncover what lies beneath.

00:05:01,140 --> 00:05:03,We start island with what we call an in
-survey.

00:05:04,620 --> 00:05:08,where we map the sea floor, where the
future island will be, and that's

00:05:08,980 --> 00:05:10,basically our starting point.

00:05:12,100 --> 00:05:17,Sonar and GPS allow Kohn and the team to
precisely map the bottom of the sea.

00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:20,You can see the depth coming up on the
screen.

00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:22,Yeah, perfect.

00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:27,So here now it is 7 meters, eh? Yeah,
exactly. It's between 7 to 9.

00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:28,Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:32,Based on that, we can calculate up till
the design level of the island.

00:05:37,050 --> 00:05:43,Building blue waters will require a
staggering 141 million cubic feet of

00:05:44,550 --> 00:05:49,And despite being located in the world's
fifth largest desert, finding the right

00:05:49,470 --> 00:05:51,sand is far from easy.

00:05:52,950 --> 00:05:55,Desert sand is not suitable for building
an island.

00:05:57,930 --> 00:06:03,The sand particles of desert sand are
very round, and this is not good for the

00:06:03,050 --> 00:06:05,interlocking between the individual
rains.

00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:08,It's like you have a jar with all of the
same marbles.

00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,Engineers have to use sand from below
the sea.

00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:19,We use marine sand. Marine sand is very
suitable for construction works because

00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:20,it is much more angular.

00:06:21,740 --> 00:06:25,And marine sand has a lot of particles
of different gradings.

00:06:26,140 --> 00:06:29,And it is coarser, so it settles much
more easier.

00:06:30,880 --> 00:06:36,But with the marine sand sites nautical miles away, engineers are

00:06:36,700 --> 00:06:37,giant challenge.

00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:43,Instead of bringing sand by road
transport to the location, we have to

00:06:43,700 --> 00:06:47,other means to bring the material from
sea to the location of the island.

00:06:58,700 --> 00:07:02,There is a solution across the world.

00:07:02,930 --> 00:07:04,Miami Beach in Florida.

00:07:05,450 --> 00:07:09,Today it's one of the most glamorous and
prestigious coastal resorts on the

00:07:09,630 --> 00:07:10,planet.

00:07:11,030 --> 00:07:15,But just over a hundred years ago, it
was a desolate, swampy wilderness.

00:07:18,650 --> 00:07:23,Its success is all thanks to the vision
of one man, Carl Fisher.

00:07:24,550 --> 00:07:29,He came up with a genius plan to convert
this marshland into what he called the

00:07:29,690 --> 00:07:31,prettiest little city in the world.

00:07:36,719 --> 00:07:41,Mechanical engineer Dan Dickrell is on a
mission to find out just how he did it.

00:07:41,580 --> 00:07:43,Oh man, this is amazing.

00:07:44,140 --> 00:07:47,What a unique experience. Probably the
airboat of the Everglades.

00:07:49,540 --> 00:07:51,Yeah, this is the natural Florida.

00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:58,In the early 20th century, Miami's coast
was a very different place than it is

00:07:58,300 --> 00:07:59,today.

00:08:09,390 --> 00:08:11,Yeah, we're going to go a little bit
more up ahead.

00:08:11,670 --> 00:08:13,There's a good spot right up there.

00:08:15,570 --> 00:08:16,Perfect,...