The Burj Dubai finally opens, and somehow they managed to avoid blowing it up in this ridiculous display of excess.
“Just in case you didn’t know why Dubai is in a debt crisis.”
We used the monorail for the first few days we were in Vegas, to go from Riviera on the north end of the Strip down to the main southern section. It’s expensive and kind of a pain to use. Riding the bus worked a lot better:
“On the Strip, as I walked south from the Sahara, I couldn’t help noticing the crowded bus stops. As it turns out, in 2005 the RTC started running a flashy double-decker bus called the Deuce up and down the Strip. It costs $3 a ride and is very popular, averaging 35,000 passengers a day. The monorail has been attracting about 17,000 a day, roughly a third of its predicted ridership.”
(Image — This manhole outside Halifax, Nova Scotia is the first North American stop of a trans-Atlantic fiber optic cable that moves data from Southport, England)
Meet the Train Makers
Infrastructurist is doing a series on the manufacturers of high-speed trains:
The transportation industry seems to be undergoing a “retrofication” these days. We’re going back to the original form of mass transit: the railroad.
The computer business is the same way. Business computing through the 70s and 80s consisted mostly of UNIX mainframe/terminal architecture. In the 90s the world went the way of the personal computer, providing fast computing for everyone right at their desks. It feels like we’re swinging the other way again, with terminal services and shared resources making a comeback, along with all of the “cloud computing” possibilities around today.
A design firm from San Francisco has proposed (PDF) turning the soon-to-be-destroyed Bay Bridge into an urban living space and recreation area.
While this looks incredibly cool, doesn’t it ignore the reason the bridge was to be dismantled in the first place? If it’s unsafe and not earthquake-proof for vehicle/rail traffic, why would it be safe for living quarters?
(bldgblog)
A developer is almost finished with construction on a residential tower in the Chealsea neighborhood of Manhattan that has individual garages attached to each apartment. A hydraulic lift raises your car from the ground to your private garage.
This must have been permitting hell.
Konstantynow radio tower.
This tower in Poland was once the tallest structure in the world (2120 feet), until its collapse in 1991.
“On August 8th, 1991, the 420-ton mast, which was capable of transmitting signals as far as North America, collapsed after workers botched work on the guy wires holding the mast in place. The pieces fell from such a great height that some of the parts shot into the ground like missiles and stuck there.”
Time-lapse construction of the Tradeston Bridge in Glasgow, Scotland.
I love how you can see the tides rising and falling through the day. At the end, you can also see how much work they did to beautify the riverfront.
In 1909, planner Daniel Burnham proposed his grand Plan of Chicago:
“Because Chicago’s transportation infrastructure was so congested—the railroads, harbor and streets were a disorganized mess—the plan analyzed the city within a 60-mile radius, proposing boulevards connecting the center to the outlying suburbs and the suburbs to one another. While the full street system was not built, the proposal for a double-level boulevard to handle commercial and regular traffic was realized in Wacker Drive—still a wonder to visitors from congested cities. The plan urged that the Chicago River be straightened, as indeed it was, to produce more efficient water-borne commerce and transportation.”
The one time I drove through Chicago, I thought it was gorgeous. At the time, I’d never been to NYC, which I’ve since become pretty familiar with. Another visit to Chicago is definitely in order, I’m interested to compare the two.
“North Korea Uncovered” is a project by a Ph.D. student from George Mason University named Curtis Melvin. The objective is to map as many “unknown” points of interest in the super-secretive DPRK as possible, from data gathered on his trips to the country as well as information from other “local spies.” All sorts of infrastructure and military data is mapped, including mines, dams, missile facilities, military bases, prisons, and burial mounds. It’s a huge and fascinating dataset.
Download the Google Earth point data layer here.
(gadling)
Visualizing the US power grid.
A neat data viz map of the US that allows you to see major power line arteries, types of power plants and their locations, and what source the power comes from in your area. There are even layers that show solar and wind power, and where those are most effective.
Looks like Florida is powered by:
- 38% Gas
- 28% Coal
- 17% Oil
- 13% Nuclear
13% of Florida energy comes from three nuclear facilities: Crystal River, Turkey Point, and St. Lucie. That’s pretty impressive. Nuclear power provides 48% of Illinois’ energy, and a whopping 71% of Vermont’s. It’s also interesting to see how important hydro power is to the Pacific Northwest, mostly sourced from the Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams on the Columbia River.
(benfry)
Mockup drawings of Robert Moses’ NYC highways in Google Maps.
Moses wanted to build Mid-Manhattan and Lower Manhattan Expressways to connect Long Island with Jersey via Manhattan. The first would’ve connected the Lincoln and Queens-Midtown Tunnels, the second would connect the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges to the Holland Tunnel. Needless to say, NYC would be a completely different place had these projects been pursued.
Developers in Houston want to extend the Grand Parkway through a section of prairie known as Katy Prairie west of Houston.
This 15-lane toll connector from I-10 to US-290 will eventually become part of a third beltway around the Houston metro center. Third. 15 lanes.
The State of Texas wants to spend $181 million of it’s expected stimulus money on something that will promote exactly what the stimulus program is trying to prevent: massive urban sprawl. Activists in the Houston area claim, rightly so, that that money would be better spent improving areas where people already live, rather than opening up a new expanse to new development.
This is one of my primary concerns of the whole “stimulus” idea. How do you tell a region or municipality how to spend their money on a local scale?
The new concrete of St. Anthony Falls Bridge.
“The St. Anthony Falls Bridge used about 50,000 yards of concrete. Hoover Dam used more than three million. And the Three Gorges project in China contains more than a yard for every man, woman and child in Canada, population 33 million.”
33 million yards of concrete is certifiably insane. China’s at it again…
That new I-35W bridge in Minneapolis is beautiful. The contractor has even built sculptures bookending the bridge that can actually sequester airborne carbon dioxide, thanks to a chemical additive that makes the concrete’s footprint “carbon negative.” They also include additives that scrub pollutants from the air, keeping the bridge bright white.
