The Subway Light Project / Natural lighting in the undergroud

If there is something wrong in the underground transport services (tube and suburban trains) is that their stations doesn´t have any sun light.

Caroline Pham, an estudent from the Parson New School for Design, from New York, propose the use for those stations of a lighting system fully sustainable, consisting in catch the sun light from outside and its transmission to inside using optic fiber. The proposal is named “The Subway Light Project”.

[ + View complete article… ]

The Three Gorges Dam, China

The Three Gorges Dam is currently under construction in the Yangtze river and it will be the largest hydraulic project in the world. The project is located between the cities of Chongqing and Yichang (Hubei Province). Its construction began in 1993 and is expected to be completed in the year 2009. After 14 of the 17 years that the construction will last we can mention that the project is in its final phase.

The proposal for the construction of this dam dates none other than that in the year 1919, though its eventual adoption it has been delayed until 1992. The Three Gorges Dam will be the largest in the world, and it will overwhelm the Qutang, Wu [photo] and Xiling fluvial gorges, reaching nearly 200 kilometers long. The width of the gorge varies from 300 to less than 100 meters in the straightest area. The seasonality of rainfall in this region causes great changes in the water levels of these gorges. The reservoir produced by the dam will overwhelm over 250 km2 of land.

[ + View complete article… ]

Seville’s Tube

The Underground of Seville is a proyect started initally in the year of 1974, doing some constructions works untill it was stopped in 1982. The causes given as reason to stop it at that time were technical difficulties, danger of damage in some historical and a low cost-effectiveness.

The actual project was retaken in 1999. The new project consider 4 lines of tube, in their most part underground, that will flow under the city of Seville and its metropolitan area.

Line 1:

The Line 1 of the Seville’s Tube is planned to start working at the end of 2008; a delayed opening due to some technical problems turned up at the construction time.

It gives service to 4 towns: Mairena del Aljarafe, Sevilla, San Juan de Aznalfarache and Dos Hermanas. It will connect then with the capital two key points of the metropolitan area of Seville: the Aljarafe and the 2nd city of the province, Dos Hermanas.
The route will combine two tracks over the surface (around 20% of the total) with some strech underground.

18.987 kms
Number of projected stations: 23
Estimated users (millions/year): 20,4
Population served: 227.974 habitants
Duration of the travel between extremes: 39 minutes
Maximum speed: 70km/h
Commercial speed: 29km/h
Frequency in rush hour: 4 minutos

[ + View complete article… ]