Extreme Engineering - MegaProjects - SF-Oakland Bay Bridge & Big Dig

One of my favorite things to do on internet is to search for future projects being planned or execute across the world. I like reading about major infrastructure projects like new bridges, tunnels, buildings etc. being planned; how will they defy challenges imposed by nature and how they are continually testing the limits of human ingenuity. I am totally mesmerized by the skill and innovative mind of engineers who not only just think of such ideas, but also have the tenacity and courage to actually implement them. I watched two episodes of Extreme Engineering recently. One was on the Eastern replacement of San-Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge on the western end of America, while the other was on the eastern end - the historic Big Dig.

The San Francisco Bay is one of the most talked about, innovative, lively place in the world. With its pleasant climate, superb landscapes and rich biodiversity, it attracts people from all around the world. Moreover, it is the place of Silicon Valley , the birth place of most of the IT companies in the world. I really want to go there once and explore the natural beauty of the place. The San-Francisco bay area is a populated region with may major cities and metropolitan areas - San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Santa Clara etc.

San Francisco Bay

These cities are served by a series of bridges that interconnect them and allow transportation between them. The Golden Gate Bridge is the most famous out of them. In fact it is one of the most famous bridges on the planet and even the most photographed bridge in the world according to some. But, the main workhorse of this area is the San-Francisco -Oakland Bay Area bridge which carries the most traffic. In 1989 an earthquake rattled the city which sits upon some of the most devious earthquake faults in US. The earthquake damaged the bridge severely and it was sure to the city planners that the bridge won't be able to overcome the next earthquake. Thus, the planning began for the reconstruction of eastern section of bridge.

Map of San Francisco Bay bridges (numbered).

1. Richmond-San Rafael Bridge
2. Golden Gate Bridge
3. San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
4. San Mateo Hayward Bridge
5. Dumbarton Bridge

The Construction of bridge started in 2002 and it was completed in 2013. It is currently the widest bridge in the world with 10 lanes of Interstate going through and lanes for pedestrians and cycling. The project was the biggest project in history of California with the estimated budget of $6.4 billion. The challenge was to build one of the most heavily used bridges in US (240,000 vehicles per day) which was earthquake proof. The bridge was designed radically with tripod designed shafts 300 m deep in basin. The bridge was constructed along the older bridge. The bridge was opened to public in September 2013 to people and is believed to function for next 150 years. Now, that the bridge has been completed, the task of demolishing the older bridge is on the way. As per planning the older bridge will be gone by 2016.

The two bridges side by side

The newly constructed bridge in front of old bridge.

                       
Our next project took place in the opposite side of US, the metropolis of Boston based on the edge of Atlantic Ocean. The city of Boston has a rich history with the roots of US independence starting from here. When the interstates were being built, due to poor planning Interstate 93 was built to cross in between the city's downtown. The expressway was built to support 75000 vehicles a day, but by 1990's it was carrying 200, 000 vehicles a day. The situation was very bad, there were long traffic jams. Experts predicted that if no solution is found, the crisis will lead to traffic jams of 16 hours per day by 2010. The city officials started looking for a solution when a contractor proposed a radical and bold solution - The Big Dig.

Traffic before Big Dig

The main problem with the city were:

• Heavily congested Interstate 93 passing through the city's core downtown
• Heavily used Interstate 90 - Massachusetts Turnpike which was used to go to Logan airport and passed through Boston
• These two expressways intersected in Boston Downtown.

To solve these issues, designers envisioned taking the whole I-93 underground and removing the elevated expressway. They planned to replace the expressway with series of green spaces and parks. Moreover, they decided to extend I-90 Massachusetts Turnpike to a tunnel under harbor to directly link it to Logan Airport.

Traffic after Big Dig

This project was very challenging and required building tunnels under the downtown and harbor without disrupting thousands of commuters using it daily. To increase the problems, the area of downtown was a landfill and was crowded with utilities and subway. The engineers had to sort out all the utilities and then design tunnels at a more depth due to presence of subways. As if this was not enough, engineers found that the soil was not string enough to support the digging of tunnels. Engineers brainstormed on the issue a lot, and later found the solution in Tokyo Japan, where they inject a mixture of concrete to strengthen the soil. There were so many more problems with this mega project like moving these massive pieces to place in these crowded city lined with low bridges. But, in the end after construction stopped in 2007, the impossible task was done. The Big was completed after a massive expenditure cost of $22 billion as per Boston Globe.

The whole time it took to complete Big Dig from planning in 1982 to completion in 2007 took a massive 25 years. People have called it the most expensive highway project in US. But, to engineers Big Dig will be always one of the most perfect examples of extreme engineering.

Current map of Boston Downtown with changes by Big Dig visible

Changes in Boston after Big Dig

Few Lines by Javed Akhtar

These lines moved me so much that I especially wrote them in Hindi.

ज्ब ज्ब दर्द का बदल छाया 
ज्ब गम का साया लहराया
ज्ब आँसू पॅल्को तक आया
ज्ब यह तन्हा दिल घबराया
हमने दिल को यह समझाया
दिल आख़िर तू क्यू रोता है

दुनिया में यूही होता है
यह जो गहरे सन्नाटे है
वक़्त ने सबको ही बाट्‍टे है
थोडा गम है सबका हिस्सा
थोड़ी धूप है सबका हिस्सा
आँख तेरी बेकार ही न्म है
हर पल एक नया मौसम है
क्यो तू ऐसे पल खोता है
दिल आख़िर तू क्यो रोता है

American TV Shows: What's Next?

I was not that much into TV, until I had the rendezvous with Big Bang Theory in 2009. I had my engineering exam in 2 days and my friend (don't know if he still deserves it) gave me 2 full seasons of it. I started with the first episode, just to take some rest and from then begin my interest in BBT. I still remember that I did not picked up my book, until I finished all the episodes of both the seasons (16 + 23). Yes, it was so addictive. After that I have watched every episode of it and even now I am waiting for the next episode to be aired on 24th April 2014.

The next TV Show that I watched was Supernatural, it was recommended by my friend Soumen in 2013 I guess, when I was in Accenture. Unlike BBT, Supernatural lost its charm after some time. I just watched first 4 seasons. In supernatural some episodes were really good and bound me with the series, but most of the episodes were boring. Usually the trend was that first few and last few episodes were best and it was the in between shit that was unbearable.

The third TV show I saw was Suits, a different kind of TV show based on a legal drama. It was really good in beginning and I started binge-watching it. But with season 3, it also started to bore. There was nothing jaw-dropping in it. The lavish life of Harvey Specter and the charm of NY started to fade away and it took whole of my willpower to stop the season in middle; for greater good, I stopped the season 3 at episode 8.

Now, I am thinking, which TV show to watch next? House of Cards, Game of Thrones or 24. Hmm, tough choice. I am inclined towards Game of Thrones, but it is like that special series, which I want to watch with my full devotion. I don't want to watch it in parts or with a gap. Now, I am having holidays and I am in Toronto and thus, I don't get much time to spend on my laptop. So, it is difficult to convince myself to start Game of Thrones. The gore and adult scenes make that choice more tougher. Lets see what I decide. (Fingers crossed.)

Microsoft's 2014 Build Conference : Nothing Surprising and Totally Boring

Today is April 2, 2014; I was waiting from a long time for this day to come. The reason was the start of Microsoft's Build 2014 event started today at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Finally Microsoft will unveil Windows Phone 8.1. I was so excited to see what they are gonna offer new in the world of mobile ecosystems. The main reason was that since I bought Lumia 720, I was attracted to Windows Phone platform; I liked its smooth and innovative live tiles interface. In the world continuously filled with chaos of Apple Vs Android, Windows Phone seemed a peaceful alternative. Rather than going with their clumsy Windows Mobile OS, Microsoft VP Terry Myerson decided they needed a new OS built from scratch to battle Android and iOS.

Windows Phone is an amazing operating system, it offers some really nice features like Data Sense, Live Tiles and a much better and easier to use interface. I was so much involved in this ecosystem , that I used to browse the WPCentral app multiple times in a day to quench my thirst of recent developments. But now, as its been 7 months and the early fever has started to cool off. Moreover, the Windows Phone 8.1 did not surprised as much as I had expected. There were no groundbreaking new innovations, just few tinkering and new features announced to offset demand for similar features in other platforms. The main features released today were Action Center and Cortana both of which are in response to other similar features in iOS and Android. While Apple released Siri in October 2011 and Android released Google Now in July 2012; Microsoft launched Cortana today around 30 months after Apple. This shows that Microsoft is not launching any innovative feature, but just following the lead of Apple. The other groundbreaking feature as mentioned by Microsoft was Action Center, which is nothing but just a modified version of Notification Center and Control Center Combined.

Actually I felt the conference, so boring that I was working really hard to keep my self awake while trying to listen to Joe Belfiore. Completely useless and boring. I still remember how amazed I was to see Scott Forstall's demo of Siri on iOS6. It seemed like a breakthrough. I realized that Apple not just posses the skill to think and develop innovative products and services, but they also have the coolest presentation skills I have ever seen from a company. Everything is in sync, rehearsed and perfect; when they first launched Siri, it worked flawlessly on stage, while Cortana got stuck multiple times. I don't know how it will perform in real time.

Now, I am believe I understand what Steve Jobs meant when he said, "The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products".