Why Nobody Can Fix This $21BN Floating Airport 

Is this the most flawed airport design in the world?

Just to be clear, this airport is NOT floating. It is built on man made islands.

The solution is rather simple: Ask the Dutch to fix it. The Dutch are specialized in solving exactly this.

If it was floating airport it would not sink

Maybe they should just build an airport at the site of the mountains they removed to get the rock to build this sinking mess.

They already built it that means they can fix it. First, deconstruct all top buildings then strengthen the ground layers under sea. The matter is only how much it cost and how long it take. Also is it worth to fix ?

It’s NOT a ‘floating’ airport👎👎

This is no different than New Orleans, San Francisco, Manhattan, and many other coastal cities that were built and/or expanded atop organic material that decomposes naturally, leaving a void that causes the weighty material above to sink.

If japan can build Gundams. Japan can also fix an airport.

Thank you for this video.I never knew this even existed. Was good content, good speeds?Please keep it up with more interesting videos

For some odd reason, I'm thinking about Dubai's Palm Island Project all the way while watching this. Talking about Kasai, the ingenuity of Japanese engineering is remarkable here. Their method is simple yet works. They basically slide a piece of metal plate into the suspension column to keep the ground levelled.

During the built the construction committee decided the less than ideal compaction is enough . When engineering studies show further compaction to reduce sinking is needed . So here we are . Soon they would need a higher sea wall and one of the largest pumping facility .

It works, but has issues

Raise the steel walls corner to corner below Airport from seabed till it touches to under surface of airport. Fill this cornered regions with High density extremely thick foam . Side walls prevent foam spreading to ocean. Foam raises Airport evenlyfrom seabed. Allow water escape at clearance near seabed as foam expand it displaces water. When foam is expanding make sure it is expanding within cubical form. Making it like Foam bricks supporting Airport. Side walls shall never allow foam to escape. It shall maintain uplifting Airport upward and sinking would stop. Also if Airport raises to initial limit then anchors could be realigned to initial first mark position. This is how one can surely stop Airport sinking. Hope your goodself would pass this comment. To Japan Authority of Airports.

It's not bloody floating

At the price of refreshments for everyone I'm surprised it wasn't cheaper to build a new airport on the spot.

ooncrete grout injection? Drive some holes around the perimeter and make a sort of "batub by grouting with hydraulic curing grout?

The seismic activity was always going to destroy this airport. It's should have been a no-brainer. It was always going to be a matter of time before the breakup began. "Despite the sinkage problem, the airport proved to be quite resilient!" Despite getting ripped open by the iceberg, the Titanic held up well!

Obviously pumping water deep below the airport won’t help, probably hurt. Sometimes this can help in areas where sinking is partly due to groundwater / petroleum has been pumped out over the years. Given possible liquefaction of the clay, it would have to below anyway.

It easy to fix fillup to 100m above the sea

Don’t worry.they are just making it more higher every few years

I save beach land daily. I inject slow curing resin that hardens into sandstone.

They will build a replacement in the area nearest to the mainland and use the old islands as a buffer. Thats the only possible solution. Japan routinely replaces its buildings because of substantial and frequent earthquakes. They knew they would have to do this again someday.

Next airport should be built on land, just level mountain tops, If they were able to fill..they can level!

⚔️As a follower of this fascinating airport, since it inception; I’m thrilled to see this latest up date. Maybe ~ 25 ago when it was sinking, but had the jacks on top of the pylons; I felt that could finally be at peace. Until it was reported that the jacking system was maxed out. I did arrive at speculative solution, when there was no online place available for me to comment on it. Resistance: The first was because the clay acts in a similar way that aquifers do. Second was the extra weight being added with more asphalt to keep the airfield above water. One solution is to relieve the area of extra weight. But what do we use to keep its present elevation stable? I thought of a flood plain that raised every rainy season that put water weigh on the top of a concrete sewer infrastructure project I graded. Civil Engineers use wood chips from a local mill, above the sand that’s on top of the pipe, then the excavated native soil was added to the top of the wood chips, to counter the extra seasonal water weight. So, where beneath the airfield do we put this replacement, or what else besides pneumatic balloon materials filled with ~ air, is used? There’s always under the pinning procedure, to replace, the removed materials. Removal of the surface in a cylinder shape like the manholes used for infrastructure pipes maintenance, dug to a allowable depth, then added the above suggestion for replacement; that is done continually throughout the surface, could relieve enough weight/ pressure. My idea has also come from a Star Trek series, that when crews were faces with an alien invasion force, that increased their offensive power each time, the crew increased their level of defences. Finally, when it was decided to back off the defensive tactics, then so, did the alien’s force. Good luck. Thanks for the update. 🛡️

Going to make for interesting pre-take off calculations, with the runways below sea level.

Why does the Title describe this as *"Floating"* since these are islands? Silly clickbait.

Floating airport? Come on!

If they had built it on pillars set on bedrock and an I-beam substructure it would have worked. Or, if they had floated it on helium balloons from Walmart.

Apparently the narrator doesn’t know what the “floating” means. It’s not floating. It has not drifted off the coast of California.

So why didn’t they make it a truly floating airport? Surely it would have been considerably cheaper and quicker to build.

If you think you can push back the ocean…try very hard to think again…if you can !!!

Potential repurposing of the facilities to a sea planes & flying boat port. Sunk costs?

Raise the nearest mountain. Build a conveyor to send the dirt to the airport

Actually, the've stoped the sinking with 999 steel pilings. This has been so successful they're going to build another island,

O Those Crazy Japanese ..... PH....

You know the Bible talks of a parable of the unwise building their house upon the sand but the wise building upon the rock, it metamorphic but also rings true the real world as well.

So if they know it will stop sinking at some point and it can be raised/adjusted with hydraulics, why not just build new and higher concrete walls around it to protect it from water?

I think it is impossible to simply lift the entire airport. You can only demolish it, heighten the island and rebuild the airport. And all has to be done in stages, because meanwhile the airport has to stay in use, I guess.

Rising global sea levels will also be an issue

I don’t know how someone can think of a project with these many problems to face and then complete it. We really have crazy people in this world who can think big and actually execute the project. Ball of steel is required to complete such a project.

The title is misleading, it is not a floating structure. And no, it cannot be fixed. The more weight added to the structure, at the very bottom of the structure the soil will be pushed aside and it will simply sink further. It is doomed.

Maybe joey can buy them a new one

Dubai has no problems with water and planes

I remember landing there shortly after it opened. Coming in for landing, looking out the window you feel like you're going to land in the ocean. You're so low over the water then at the last second there's the runway.

Human "ingeniuty" always has a limit, especially when financial limit is one of those limits. Here the problem was assuming the underwater base would "fully compress", How??? It is not confined to a specific area so it wont "fully" compress. If small volumes of foamy water can have its way with beach sand, imagine underwater currents versus any type of sand.

Floating airport the engineering modern marvel will end up as a big mistake....no?

Is the airport floating, or is it sinking? Kind of hard to have it both ways, yes?

Just put a water tight wall all around it....

Coupled with the varying rates of sea level rise, this seems like it was KNOWN to be structurally unsound from the beginning. Perhaps a truly FLOATING SUBPLATFORM would be the only lasting solution. I lived in Nagasaki prefecture and Nagoya city and Japan is UNIQUE in that it refuses to build much on hillsides, unlike cities such as Los Angeles which makes for beautiful nature preserving landscapes, but wastes arable land for cities.

3:08 "Japan is a relatively large country" Um. What?

Is there hope? Even the islands stop sinking, the sea level will rise due to climate change. Right?

They expected it would sink and has the solution for it, only that the sinking rate is faster so they have to work faster and cost more.

The ocean is claiming every shores around the world.

You can't fool mother natures

They fixed 2 craters made by the Yanks, this will be peanuts to fix!

China does, they turned it down. Because the Chinese didn't want to sing "American Pie" and the SKs don't know either🤣

We love Japanese

For the Japanese government to construct an airport where they are constantly at odds with nature, they just have too much money and too many nutty engineers.

Can't build on land because Japan doesn't have eminent domain.

I guess the Dutch were not involved in creating this land from water.

Man made it, only Man can fix it! ..what do you expect? animals and/or plants to fix the airport?

there's a way to minimise the sinking rate of the island airport . . . concentrated air pressure at temperatures not exceeding 74°C . . .

planet same coral maybe it will be land again

It was built because theres no land

I figured at this point it would of been known that artificial islands will never be the permanent place they want.SO now not just screwing yourselves but the people who actually pay for it.

If the Chinese had built it, it would not have sunk

Good puns, good puns.

🤣I say to "hector" with the whole damn sinking mess...whatever a "hector" is 😛

Waste of 10 minutes. This was a 2 minute video, it settled faster than expect no end in sight.

Strictly speaking, it's not built in an "ocean." The surrounding sea is Osaka Bay, part of the Seto Inland Sea, not part of Pacific Ocean.

Could have just built it on land.

Maybe I have an idea of how to stop the sinking. How can I create contact with the right people?

what a waste of money and resources. Dubai is facing the same issue with so much waste to create to only be destroyed. all coastal cities in the world will be decimated from rising sea levels, flooding and earthquakes. a small rise in global sea levels has massive effects on flooding. 1 inch of rise can shift tides to several feet. People keep talking about the year 2100 but in reality its already happening now and the flooding is getting worse every year. Rapid escalation of global weather crisis and spending trillions of dollars holding water back isn't the answer. Holding water back is temporary for relocation and its a major financial burden waste of resources. Do your research on flooding the past 60 years because thats how long i have been watching the world change. Change is happening much much faster than they are saying. I see the devastation around the world already. You all need to relocate to 200 feet above sea level for future generations to be sustainable.

built too low？

Its not floating

🛸🛸✈✈🚀🚀

Good post

thumbs down. It is not floating.

I'm sure China can fix it. The question is, will Japan suppress its ego to ask for China's help. 😁😁😁

When you're speaking in American English, you should not use meters/kilometers/hectares, etc. You didn't use Japanese Yen, you used American Dollars.

The DUTCHS can fix it

Why call it a "floating"?, it's just like any other man-made "artificial" island. Rubbish marketing.