A grandiose breakthrough in the architecture of the last century was the construction of the Kansai airport in Japan . This unique structure, built on unstable ground, is not only interesting for its history, but also functionally useful, because it is a large airport . Let's find out what we had to face in its construction, and whether this goal was justified.
How did Kansai Airport start?
In 1960, the city of Osaka, located in the Kansai region, gradually stopped receiving state subsidies. Thus, in the near future the district could turn from prosperous into poor. To prevent this, the local authorities decided to build a large international airport, which would allow several times to increase passenger traffic in the region.
But there was no free land near Osaka , and local residents were categorically against such an undertaking, since the noise level in the city was already above all norms. Therefore, the construction of the international airport of Kansai was decided to begin 5 km from the city, right in the Osaka Bay.
This was to be the most outstanding construction of the century, since the runway and the terminal building were supposed to be built not on solid ground, but on a bulk island. Like the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, millions of workers, billions of tons of soil and concrete blocks and huge financial investments were involved.
After a few years, when the designers calculated everything to the smallest detail, construction began. This happened in 1987. 2 years continued excavation work on the construction of a mound 30 m in height. After that, a two-tier bridge connecting the island to the land was put into operation. On the upper tier a six-lane road for cars was equipped, and on the lower level there are two lines of the railway. The bridge was named "Celestial Gate". The official opening of the airport occurred on September 10, 1994.
What is remarkable about Kansai airport in Osaka?
Photos of Kansai Airport are amazing. And anyone who has heard the story of his amazing appearance will dream of seeing it personally. The platform, on which the airport and the runway is located, stand on a thirty-meter mound of imported soil and concrete slabs. The runway itself has a length of 4 km, and its width is 1 km.
Initially, the developers planned a small natural drawdown of the island, but the plans did not materialize. Every year, the artificial mound went under the water by 50 cm. But, fortunately, in 2003 the high-speed sediment stopped, and now the sea takes only 5-7 cm annually, which is included in the planned rate.
In view of the great prospects for such construction, it was decided to build a second runway. It was connected to the main island by a small bridge, along which the planes run to the station building and back. In the construction of the second strip, the previous errors were already taken into account, and it became possible to control the uneven drawdown of the embankment. Everywhere electronic sensors are installed, sensitive to the slightest movement of the soil.
The terminal building is one and a half kilometers long, but this is not the main thing. It is noteworthy that this is the largest one-room premise in the world. Although there are a lot of partitions and three floors, but everything is located in one huge room. On the ground floor there are numerous cafes, restaurants and duty-free shops. On the second one - the exits to land, and on the third there is registration for the flight and there is a waiting room.
The airport is made of steel and glass and looks like a giant centipede because of the numerous legs-terminals to which the aircraft approach. Every year, the passenger flow in this unique island-airport is more than 10 million people.
For their part, the airport architects managed to "excellent". After all, here, in the world center of earthquakes and typhoons, the design must be incredibly strong and at the same time plastic. In practice, it was possible to find out whether this was the case during the earthquake in Kobe , when the magnitude of the oscillations was 7 points. A little later, a typhoon swept over the airport when the wind speed was 200 km / h. In both cases, the building stood against the forces of nature. This became a well-deserved and long-awaited award to the whole team of builders and designers.
Thus, the most expensive project in history, the cost of which is estimated at $ 15 billion, proved itself in action. However, it has not yet paid off due to the fact that the cost of maintaining the island airport is very high. That's why the price of tickets for flights here is sky-high and even landing of each airliner costs about $ 7,500. But despite this, Kansai airport is in demand both for the small prefecture of Japan, and for the whole world.
To the tourist on a note
Through the airport a huge amount of passenger traffic passes daily. Among the people visiting the country are people of different nationalities, religions and preferences. The airport's services are aimed at ensuring maximum comfort for each visitor. For this, there are 12 restaurants with a variety of cuisine:
- vegetarian;
- traditional Japanese ;
- European;
- kosher;
- Halal products.
If you stayed in the transit area, in order to take time, you can go to the roof garden, which runs from 8:00 to 22:00. From here, an extraordinary view of the ocean and planes landing or taking off opens up.
In addition, for tourists there is a "Sky Museum", which is open from 10:00 to 18:00. here you can learn about the history of this place, as well as watch films about the subtleties of take-off and landing of aircraft. If the flight is delayed and there is no desire to spend all the time in the terminal, a comfortable hotel is waiting for you, located right there - Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport.
You can import cash into any country in any quantity, but you will need to fill out the declaration if the amount exceeds 1 million yen. Depending on the type of imported currency, it is better to learn the exchange rate at home to choose the best one. You can exchange money units right at the airport, without loss on the fluctuations of the exchange rate.
How to get to the airport?
You can get to the airport and back by bus, by taxi or by train. All the traffic here goes through the bridge. Travel time, depending on the starting point of departure, takes from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Buses run here every 30 minutes, the ticket price is 880 yen ($ 7.8), the same as for a high-speed train. But the taxi will cost 2.5 times more expensive.