14 malaysia one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing cities
of doing Asian tiger every year
mother nature threatens to bring into its means traffic school
innocent blood
the solution is free carve a single giant road and water term right over the
city itself
in rivers jump their banks the tunnels road TX will be able to transform into
massive flood to carry the raging waters under the city streets leaving the
country's billion dollar economy coming along above high and dry
and millions of dollars of property and the lives of hundreds could be at risk
it would be the first combined and traffic tunnel in the world a model for
other flood from cities with the threat of sinkholes
massive mechanical failure and fire like the builders of malaysia smart tunnel
from
this is one of the world's most amazing structures 9.7 kilometer
drill to some of the most unpredictable ground
amazing
being constructed changers below the streets of a major city
this one tiny across more than half a billion dollars to build
for years to finish and the project's giant tunneling machines will grind
through enough
earth to fill up over 500 olympic-sized swimming pools kuala lumpur malaysia
this modern asian metropolis lies at the intersection of two major rivers the
clang and the combo for more than a century these waterways with a lifeblood
of Malaysia's capital but now they may be the biggest threat to the city
survival every year
tropical storms last relation causing its rivers to range when floodwaters
reach bottle
rivers can jump their banks and ravage the city center
floods like this we leave a cleanup build
and cripple the city's economy for today
no one knows the problem better than Malaysia's director-general of
irrigation and drainage dr. Keyes rule . the meeting point of two rivers and at
the point where the two rivers meet
this is the natural depression it's like a ball in the river basin and during
heavy rain this whole ball gets flooded with water ever since 14 put itself on
the method by building the world's highest twin town it's been racing to
compete with the financial hubs of nearby singapore and hong kong
enemy at the mercy of leaks
isn't an option
the Malaysian government desperately needs the winning proposal is a radical
plan that promises to tackle the flooding and the city's worrying rise in
traffic delays in one go
the project is called Smart short for stormwater management and rode the smart
concept is surprisingly simple
first built a massive 9.7 kilometer long tunnel directly under Kuala Lumpur is
safely funnel floodwaters from the Klang river at the north to the Quran river in
the south
yeah
then insert a three kilometer long double level toll road way to help solve
the city's traffic problems commuters can travel on the road decks while water
goes below in a sealed flood but that's not all
what makes the smart design truly unique is a feature that would harm the city
against a worst-case scenario
vijayan river search is headed toward kuala lumpur the two road X could be
evacuated and served as additional flood channels to carry the region waters
underneath the city and spare the country's billion dollar economy above
it would be the first tunnel of its kind in the world
we're building this megastructure just 20 metres below the streets of this
major city is a monumental challenge
under quality of
is a tunnel engineers nightmare full of karstic limestone that can collapse and
sucked down buildings and even people above
the smart plan is approved the candle Asia actually building and finish the
work in time for the next giant storm
january 2003 Malaysia's heavyweights in engineering and construction start work
on the smart this kind of memory is new
the risks of the projects are too great to go it alone
the solution is to bring on veteran Hungarian tunneler dust cloud
Gus knows that the stakes are high and in tunneling anything can happen i
started to work and thundering sizes on all of this
and I fell in love with the thing because it's interesting it's always
different
nothing is ever the same again tunnel warrior Gus has worked on some of the
biggest underground projects kill the world including the channel tunnel
linking britain and france i welcome to come out
but this month is much much
most of his crew have no
only had the corn people professional people had the experience
we had to recruit to the
from the region from Malaysia and some philippines environment
the immediate and we have to obtain everybody on the job
january 2004 the first of the two mega machines start to arrive
it takes three months to assemble the project staging zone a giant shaft 140
meters long and almost 13
to accommodate a stormwater channel and a double level internal highway the
smart tunnel has to be more than 13 meters wide the fastest way to bore a
hole that big is to use some of the largest tunnel boring machines 40s on
the giant drills custom ordered from Germany 471 meters in length longer than
a 747
weighing in at 2,200 tons apiece they're almost as heavy as a dozen jumbo jet
at the front of 300 tons circular cutter head forged from high tensile steel
the heavy work
but tvm is an amazing machine that both drills and filled while digging out
super a massive drill edges
then throws up brings of high grade concrete
these form the lining of the hump
from day one senior project manager cus plotters is under pressure to complete
the budget
any machine can help into it it's this one
each of the smarts cutting-edge tbm cost almost 25 million dollars
machine has all the features and response today they're very luxurious
one in the tunnel boring world is no choice of the tunnel boring
they're armed with the latest ring building lifters and hydraulic rams the
message cutter heads are larger than those used to build the channel tunnel
$MONTH 2002 second tvm arrives any major damage would require custom repairs in
Germany and set the project back
from this teachings on the plan calls for two TBMs and their crews to dig out
one team will head south to the Quran river the other will link up a decline
river to the north the job requires the tunnelers to work around the clock for
nearly three
push the men and machines to the link
tunneling finally begins in the South drive
maybe
there's a problem
used concrete lifters have to be controlled down to the millimeter is a
tiny joint
malaysia engineer on highway has to keep the men on scheduled in the first time I
didn't know what to do actually
no one else to do
football
ours or one day build
and that face the project would take almost three years longer than expected
and run millions of dollars over budget and that's not the only risk boring
these leviathans just metres below the city streets could cause a major
catastrophe it would be the first structure of its kind anywhere in the
world a giant dual-purpose title for stormwater traffic
the flash flood strikes the roadways inside the tunnel could transform into
emergency water check to help steer the search safely under the city and spare
it's placing economy above $OPERAND meters under following
senior project manager just closed is under pressure to complete the smart
tunnel before the next crippling storm but his workers are still struggling
with
the giant drill is already in motion grinding steadily for
behind
concrete segments around
way to the TM
like message
if I'm argument
giant hydraulic arms swinging the segments into place
it takes eight seconds to build just like in an art there's a keystone that
holds everything together
using the power section of the lifters raised in position each segment down to
make one mistake the tunnel mighty
above-ground to special fabrication plants are also in full strength
building the concrete segments each one contains more than 300 kilograms of
steel rebar
they're held together with high-grade time Chris the kind used to build
bomb-proof bunker
the tunnel lining needs to be strong enough to handle the load of a
double-deck motorway and a billion litres of raging water
at maximum speed the plants can turn out more than a thousand segments a week to
feed the teams working both the north and south
back in the TDM the workers have finally mastered the machines and the smart is
on schedule now it's a race to build faster and faster only fitting that is
27
while speed is important to the tunnelers the project engineers have
other worries on them
kuala lumpur lies on some of the most treacherous ground on the planet
it's a tunnel engineers worst nightmare a condition geologists call karst
topography over millions of years acid in rainwater has slowly eating away at
the limestone bedrock
the result is a fast underground landscape of cliffs cavities and
fissures ranging in size from tiny cracks to call lhasa caves in kuala
lumpur most people don't know they're there until they collapse and bring down
the city with
from the start engineers knew that building the smart ones require sending
the tunnelers and their machines straight into this underground mine
field
the stakes are huge
if one of the giant drills hits a large unstable cavern it could trigger
wherever they occur sinkholes can come in all shapes and sizes this one in
Guatemala was 40 meters wide
it sucked down houses and killed three people
it wasn't caused by tunneling it occurred suddenly after a major
rainstorm if a sinkhole this large happens in kuala lumpur results to be
kinda spotting it's not the first time engineers have face this danger
three-wide to 1992 plans are underway to build the petronas twin towers on a site
in downtown quality
they would be 88 stories tall the highest twin towers in the world
together their concrete and steel would weigh more than 400,000 metric times
place that much weight on unstable ground and the results could be
disastrous
before construction begins
Jill just launched
massive site service
and luckily they made a crucial discovery under the plant site was a
giant limestone cliff that could have caused the towers above to sink and even
collapse the original site had to be moved 60 meters the building the
smartphone they could be much more comfortable the Twin Towers rested on
just over 18,000 square meters of ground an area small enough to serve a
completely before construction started
smart on the other hand has a 10 kilometer long footprint its site covers
almost seven times as much ground as the Twin Towers survey every single inch of
this much isn't an option
use the risk of collapse geologists have to prove constantly our head of the TDM
they were probing the head of the Machine and they're always looking for a
solution features its large enough to it to allow the machine to drop into or dip
into because it would have . talent for months whenever the surveyors had a
cavity the public full
concrete based ground but karst cavities can be less than a meter wide making it
nearly impossible to locate everyone along the tunnels entire route
Smart's long underground journey meant that the toddlers would face new risks
every single day
month after month for almost clean years
so much at stake
the choice of TBMs was critical the way most tunnel boring machines work is
surprisingly simple the cutterhead at the front grinds through soil and block
much like a household drill the resulting waste is that loaded on wagons
and carried out of the top this kind of TM is designed for solid ground if the
drill hits week cavities like those under kuala lumpur the earth could cave
in on the cutter head
a big enough collapse could even suck the TV and down with it the TBMs chosen
for smart are specially on their advantage is a sealed high pressure
chamber at the head of the drill this is pumped full of liquid
the sealed pressure zone also provides a barrier between the toners and the
unstable brown the head of at least until something goes wrong inside the TV
and in the North Drive there's a problem
the giant drills progress has slowed dramatically
the team needs to find out why
the TBMs cutter head is armed with 76 forged speed discs to tear through
rockin sword
Gus believes the cutter discs of warning out
and they need to be replaced the problem
the cutterhead lies in the forward pressure zone
to get that the workers have to wait it out in a hyperbaric chambers until it's
safe to go inside
yeah
the cutter head compartment has been drained or slurry so the mention work
but if the TV n is stopped inside a week karst cavity a sudden drop in pressure
would cause the ground ahead to cave in
first shift engineer hallway leads to measure the cutter distance
haha
to access each disc the ester will take the Giant
rock face could weaken
the cutter discs are too dull to continue coming they'll have to be
replaced
inside a pressurized cutterhead are some of the worst conditions of tunnel
contains its noise
yeah
it's locked with temperatures up to 45 degrees celsius and there's barely
enough space to meet
speed is critical
every time the cutterhead needs
you risk of falling rock and sword
finally the first cutter is free
yeah
replacements arrive to a pressure lock each cutter is forged from tools team
some of the hardest metal on the planet and weighs 200 killin
14 shifts it takes sixty four hours to finish the job
for Gus the sounds of the drill ramping back up to speed is a welcome sign
get him together and knotting up now this
boys
the next anything again
time is going on
the measure is working well
right off keeping the machine service and on schedule is Gus's priority but he
also has to make sure the tvm follows a precisely defined path the ideal root
for the smart would be a straight line but unfortunately that wasn't an option
the reason may be surprising local property law in malaysia property owners
don't just on their land they also own everything that lies below it all the
way to the core
since the tunnels original route would send it careening into hundreds of
private property plots city officials would have to buy tunneling rights from
each Lando including one of Kuala Lumpur is most exclusive golf clubs
and that would have added millions of dollars to the project cost the solution
was to send the giant tunnel under land already owned by the city including
streets and highlights
but now the smart would require a series of sharp then
a four-story Hydra
it's as long as a city block 20 meters underground
isn't easy
an experienced tunneler Gus knew what it would take
we tried to make the minimum scarves but this possible with the size of partners
250 meter radius is a very very spoke for a size of gonna like this and micro
seconds we have to buy special machines to be able to negotiate this got a
special giant bearing was installed at the front of the TBM to enable the drill
head to navigate the tight turns
yeah
and high-grade ring segments had to be specially fabricated to make the tunnel
lining turn to
each ring has a thick side and the thin side if you put the thin side
back-to-back you can make the tunnel turn anyway you wanted
the TBM team is under constant pressure to finish the smart on schedule
but just behind the tunnelers another challenge is losing
doing come on
xml
your deck construction
likely hi
the smarts design calls for a double level 3 kilometer roadway to be built
inside the tunnel
the problem is they have to construct it less than 300 millimeters above the
moving trains that carry crucial supplies two teams working deep inside
many said it couldn't be done
the solution to build just two key supports on either side of the train
track and then use the lining of the tunnel itself to help to spend huge
precast slabs over the train
on top of these slabs workers can pour the concrete for the roads
while the Train below
running around
jun 4th 2005 across town one of the tvm teams is reaching a critical project
milestone breakthrough in the south
yeah
after drilling 49
and building on
housing 67
dr KTM emergers right
risks to the project continued including what no time operator ever wants to see
dollars are more than two years into their big to build the giant smart
tunnel under quality of formulation
the tunnel will be the first of its kind on the planet a combined roadway and
flood channels that can protect this Southeast Asian city against future
giant flood critical repairs to the tunnel boring machine in the North Drive
brought tunneling to a halt now the giant machine and its crew are back on
schedule racing again toward completion after three years the double level
roadway is finally open for business
now the lives of creators will be at stake too
thousands of vehicles are expected to travel to the tunnel every day
in just seconds a single driver could trigger a major accident
it's every tunnel operators worst nightmare
a horrific scene like this one
it happened in the Alps right on the border of Italy and friends
it's March 1999
deep inside the Mont Blanc tunnel a truck carrying Marjorie has caught on
fire and triggered a raging in front
cars and passengers already inside have no way to escape
flames raced through the tunnel and golfing everything in their path
firemen are blasted with a wave of poisonous gases and temperatures that
thousand degrees Celsius
yeah
66 people are reported missing it takes 53 hours to control the fire
when it's only 39 people are dead and the mobloc inferno will go down as one
of the deadliest tunnel fires in history in kuala lumpur safety officials know
that accident and Fire will be constant threats to the smart
the critical question will be how fast can they control
from the start safety has been a key focus of the smart tunnels design
every kilometer teams have dugout at least
leading to the city streets above
every 250 meters passages connect both road x
dozens of closed circuit TV cameras monitor every inch of the roadways for
the first signs of trouble
waterproof safety lights had to be designed to withstand the force of
raging flood
at the center of it all
our control
smart safety team has also been trained for a worst-case scenario
and on april fifth 2007 that's exactly what happened
inside the smart tunnels top rope
cars of kailash
both injured passenger
flames start to engulf the vehicle
the control room spots the fire
yeah
please try two weeks to see
but smoke is filling the tunnel
an alarm notifies the control room that air quality of dropping fast fans in the
ventilation shaft start to disperse the smoke
medics finally reach the injured drivers
firefighters start to douse the flames
the smoke levels appear to be dropping
the passengers are on the way to hospital
and soon the fires out officials breathe a sigh of relief
they have staged this accident to test the smart safety
there's no telling what would happen in a real emergency
but this test at least has been a success the smarts roadways will reduce
congestion and travel time into the city centre
the toys collected will help repay the half-billion dollar cost of building the
smart
but unfortunately the risk of a project overspend continues
toddler still have 552 leaders to go in the North Drive
30 vm is chewing the earth 20 meters below a popular community and smart
engineers could soon have a potential catastrophe on their hands
the TDM we'll have to drill extremely close to these the pylons of malaysia's
national grid if one of these towers toppers it could shut down power too
much of the city ensuring the safety of the pylons falls to senior geotechnical
engineer as Sakha coelom
the three pilots that are in close proximity to the TV enlightenment from
part of the National bring and that makes it super sensitive
as the tvm approaches shot Casillas team reinforces each pylon and carefully
monitors it for the slightest evidence of leaving
meanwhile the giant drill is grinding its way closer and closer
in the TBMs control room the driver starts to coax it as they near the
pylons
he keeps his eye on the slurry pressure
any drop in the gauge could be a sign that the ground is
election
it takes four days of carefully waiting and watching
finally the TBMs past the danger zone
this risk to the national grid is over for now the North BBM continues to grind
its way for
now
hungers after commute five kilometers in the tunnel to reach the giant drill the
further and they go the hotter it gets
giant fans pump pool area ventilation ducts that stretch all the way to the
tvm
the tunnel is like a journey artery feeding the men and machines inside with
vital supplies power and a steady stream of concrete segments for the timeline
but when it comes to boring the most crucial material of all is bentonite
slurry
the sixth grade liquid plays three critical role
it keeps pressure on the rock face too overt sinkholes provides a protective
coating to the John
and carries the mind waste material back out of the time
an enormous slurry plan is working around the clock inside huge machines
process and clean
rockin soil is separated and sent on to other construction sites
the clean recycle slurry is then piped back underground to the TDM to start its
journey
forget it
pumps keep the slurry moving around the clock
yeah
the best
the pipes and pumps moving a slurry in and out of the time to fill up more than
600 olympic-sized is really for use on the month
we break in the supply chain and
higher for check-in come to an expensive and MSC standard march two thousand
seven the TBM and its crew is just days away from their prize breakthrough . the
tunnels northern
yeah
mornings ago
but what happens next comes without warning a huge drop in pressure on the
slurry pipe feeding the tdf circulate hundreds of leaders of thick slurry are
flooding the tongue
the slurry short sakky electric cable the TBM grinds to a halt now the tunnels
are five kilometers inside the North drive-in almost darkness
they need to find the problem and fix it fast
the only choice is to wade through the thick liquid and search for the leaked
by hand
attempts to repair the power lines fail
the clock is ticking
finally they find the ruptured slurry
the flood of slurry in the tunnel will have to be pumped out and a skilled pipe
fitting team brought him to do the repair
content without help we're just remember one thing that is down when we can check
out the fighting for you . but there's limited like our and access
it takes the team's three days to fix the leak and clean up the mess
the slurry system is finally back on track but there's still a risk for more
trouble ahead
everything is over you then I'm just such an extent by now that anything can
break down and everything based on we won't make it
people are a bit number including myself
April second 2007 Malaysian officials gather at the final breakthrough .
waiting for the TBMs around
after almost three years of public
4story hi drill
wave of pressurized slurry announces its arrival
they finally meet the 25 million dollar TV and they seem dismantled piece by
piece and shipped back to your for its next assignment
yeah
for senior project manager Gus close
it's been a rough but successful ride to complete the nine kilometres Alana this
large diameter tunnel in the city this close to the surface and more difficult
geological conditions it's it's something so it's good to be over the
workers Gus training for the job are now experience tunnels they even broken a
world speed record for their type of TDM building 17 rings in a single day
it's a day they'll never forget
it's a very special feeling beyond what I think everybody through the same after
a few years of sports on TV quickly
normal
ok that should celebrate now yes congratulations guys
very very well thank you
the smart now reaches nearly 10 kilometers from the client river in the
north to the Quran in the South but just weeks after the break
huge tropical storm
as water rises in the client and gumbo rivers another flood in downtown kuala
lumpur seems
the tunnel has been built but will it actually work
what happened in the tunnels roadways are flooded with millions of liters of
you want
a huge tropical storm pounds mallet
the city of Portland
officials prepare to put their giant new smartphone into action could divert
water from the client river in the north to the Quran river in the side
they still don't know yet if it will actually work the smart tunnel was
designed to handle three different modes boat one is for normal weather in this
mode both levels of roadway are open for traffic and the water channel below is
closed and drive when moderate storms in kuala lumpur the tunnel better move to
the roadways will still remain open now flood water can flow underneath the
traffic the most critical load of all his mode 3 if a giant flood surge is
threatening the city the tunnel roadways will be evacuated and the raging river
water can surge down all three levels of the smart
that is if everything goes to plan on continues to dress quality
as river levels rise officials different water from the Klang river into a
holding pod before channeling it into the tunnel
see flood water is flowing under the road X as the hours pass the River
continues to rise
water filling the smart the time has finally come for the time
ultimate test
three search
we must put into operation and to see that it will work as planned and its
design if the moon three works it could save one
and its economy from more crippling flow
the failure
a project into a half then
dollar single all traffic has to be evacuated in less than 45 minutes
when the surge arrives it will block all escape routes anyone left inside the
drop
350 millimeters thick doors seal off the road x from the emergency exits and
frost passages
yeah
huge 37 ton hydraulic gates prevent flood water from escaping to the city
above
with the roadways cleared and see it's time to unleash the search
like
now with the tunnel evacuated the surge should flood the lower decks CCTV
cameras are the safety teams only eyes inside the tunnel they watch anxiously
waiting for the waters arriving
then it appears the search is flooding the roadways
a billion litres of floodwater are now racing down the smart
yeah
camera after camera tracks the surges progress
it makes its way under kuala lumpur
$OPERAND minutes go by
the water fills
in the upper deck it's also rising fast
if the engineers calculations are off
the roadways could crack under so much pressure
so far everything seems ok the waterproofed lighting and electrical
lines are still operational
the cameras are working and the safety team is able to control the surge
finally the team spots the flood waters flowing out of the tunnel south of the
city the Smart has passed its final test
it's working exactly as designed Malaysia's director-general of
irrigation and drainage dr. Keyes rule has been waiting for this moment for
years with this and our belt i think we can be confident that we'll be ready
Bigfoot comes it's a brilliant idea to solve major cities traffic and flood
problems with a single
the challenge was enormous kilometer after kilometer of treacherous ground
the risk of collapse and mechanical failure all just leaders under major
city
the smart tunnel will go down in history as the first mega structure of its kind
an achievement that the man who built it will never forget
nothing can stop tropical storms from lashing relation
column for location at the confluence of two nature rivers may no longer be a
threat to its growth the smart tunnel is one of the modern world's most amazing
structure able to transform scenes like these into distant memories
the next time other
beyond Southeast Asia it'll be business as usual relations booming capital