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bmmayer1 | 8 months ago

This is incredible -- serious question -- has anything of this scale been done in the US or Europe? Do we even have the technology?

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crooked-v|8 months ago

Check out the raising of Chicago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago). From buildings up to entire city blocks were raised, moved on rollers, or both, usually while businesses and residents stayed in them for normal day-to-day life.

wenc|8 months ago

Chicago also reversed the flow of the Chicago River.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_River#Reversing_the_fl...

They also rebuilt much of the city because it was wiped out during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and now the grid system is one of the most commonsensical ones in any major American city.

Chicago is an example of a (more or less) clean-slate engineered large city -- one that arose as a result of tragedy (fire) and failure (cholera).

userbinator|8 months ago

In five days the entire assembly was elevated 4 feet 8 inches

At a constant rate that's approximately 1.3 tenths (3.3um) per second, definitely far below the threshold for people noticing.

dcrazy|8 months ago

In 1930 they moved an entire telephone exchange in Indianapolis without even taking it offline: https://indianahistory.org/blog/instead-of-moving-mountains-...

The technology in this video appears to be computer control of the many pistons underneath the raised block. I would estimate that could be done with roughly 1970s-level of technology.

pxc|8 months ago

So the impressive thing is really the social coordination, the project management, which was doubtless challenging but is hardly unique.

It's still kind of a wonderful, imo. And it's awesome to be able to see it on video like this.

orbital-decay|8 months ago

Structure relocation is 19th century tech, still as fascinating as back then. This was done all over the world, on a much bigger scale than a single block. In some US cities in particular, and in Moscow they moved entire streets like that, with people inside.

It's just expensive and there's no reason to do that unless the city is being actively developed, which Shanghai still is, and older structures are in the way.

hombre_fatal|8 months ago

I think the real question is whether we can do it today.

e.g. When NYC expanded its subway system for the first time in 50 years in 2017, it cost $2.5 billion per mile. 8-12x more expensive than similar projects in foreign cities.

There might be too much regulation and too much cost and too many meetings and too many contractors and too much political conflict to do many of the feats we did in the 19th and 20th century.

gbil|8 months ago

Back in 1991 a church built in the 1500s was moved on rails at Kifissia, Greece. Sure, not the same scale but taking into consideration the time it was built, it was a great achievement

Sorry, could only find reference in Greek language but the pictures and diagrams are universal :) plus translation options are always available https://www.mixanitouxronou.gr/to-ekklisaki-pou-xethemelioth...

mmsc|8 months ago

Yes, it has been common enough, no "robots" required. The Indiana Bell Building is a famous one from a century ago, which gets videos posted about it on social media ever so often.

dluan|8 months ago

Something similar but different was back in the early 1900s, several city blocks in Seattle were moved or relocated when large chunks of the city were blasted away with water to flatten it. Although most old buildings were simply demolished.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regrading_in_Seattle