Underground

Bridge to Sicily - Construction scheduled to start this year A ride from mainland Italy to Sicily takes hours, as you have to take a ferry across the Medina Strait. But this is about to change: The world’s longest suspension bridge shall connect Sicily to the rest of Italy. The bridge shall span a record of 3.3km. As a suspension bridge, it shall be especially resistant against earthquakes. Construction is supposed to start in 2026. Once finished, it can carry 6,000 cars per hour and additionally 200 trains per day. Autonomous eVTOL supplies offshore oil rig in China Chinese company Autoflight tested their fully electric eVTOL that can carry up to 400kg of load. The purpose of this autonomous drone is to support offshore oil rigs. Current ways of supplying them are either via ship, which can take up to ten hours or more, or via helicopter, which is very expensive. Thus a fully electric and autonomous drone could save lots of time and money. The drone fills a similar niche as the MightlyFly about which I wrote in July. As soon as these drone types become reliable and economical, they are goint to reshape many industries. Metrocosmos - a fascinating look into the underground This week I watched the documentary Metrocosmos by Filmmaker Timo Novotny. In this five-part documentary, Timo takes us on a journey into the underground of Paris, Prague, Berlin, Vienna and Naples. We learn about the fact that the metro in Naples is one of the metros with the steepest gradiants. Or that the length of the Paris metro, which is already one of the largest in the world, is currently in the progress of being extended to twice the track length! On this journey we also meet all kind of people in the underground, from the construction workers who built the tunnels, over designers who create the visual communication concept, to the urban explorers who find abandoned places all over the networks. All of this is presented in a captivating visual style, combined with a hypnotic soundtrack. This is a must-watch for all subway afficinados. The videos are currently available (in German) on the ARD Mediathek. Title Image by the Messina Strait Bridge Company.

The subconscious helps you make sense of an ever changing world. As the name says, you are often not aware of the working of the subconscious. Yet it is always at work, guiding you softly and never stopping. The same is true for what is underneath our cities. The ground under our feet sprouts so many functions that are essential for our lives, but we rarely think about them. There are cables that bring electricity, pipes that deliver fresh water or take away used ones and optical fibres that let us communicate with the world. All of this happens every day, every second, and that is what keeps us alive and functioning. ...

Highspeed Maglev in China Researches in China demonstrated the prototype of a new Maglev train that accelerates from 0 to 650kph in just 7 seconds. This is very impressive! Such an acceleration is of course way too fast for normal passengers, but it shows what the technology can do. It also enables the researchers to work with a much shorter track for their experiments, as the acceleration takes place along only 600m. They plan to extend the track this year, which then shall lead to speeds of more than 800kph! Fehmarnbelt Tunnel - Drone Flyover The construction of tunnel under the Fehmarnbelt, connecting Denmark and Germany, is in full swing. It is a submerged tunnel, where all the tunnel elements are prepared in a giant factory on site and then later shipped to their final destination. The Fehmarnbelt project released this video on LinkedIn. In an impressive drone flight, the video shows construction on both sides as well as the impressive factories that produce the tunnel elements. This is something you need to watch! Las Vegas Loop 3 years later: What works, what doesn’t work - from a public transport perspective During my research for my article about Cargo Sous Terrain I found this very interesting article. It analyses in detail the current state of the Las Vegas Loop, operated by The Boring Company. The author shows in first-hand experience if the Las Vegas Loop can keep its promises, what works well and what doesn’t. The article is written in German, but with the automatic translation in the browser it should also be easy to understand. The Gondola Project Gondolas and cable-cars are not only popular in ski resorts. They are increasingly used as public transportation all over the world. This excellent homepage is dedicated to the promotion of gondolas for public transport and features the latest news and developments. Definitely worth reading! Image credits: CC BY-SA 4.0, by TanyaHyde

Swiss company Cargo Sous Terrain plans to reform freight transport by going underground on a large scale. In the shadow of more flashy developments like the Teslas zipping under Las Vegas, they follow a more down-to-earth (literally) approach. Learn more about this new concept for freight transport in this article.

Imagine ordering food at your favorite restaurant and having it show up at your office or living room a few minutes later. This is the idea of Pipedream Labs, who want to connect restaurants, supermarkets and homes with an underground delivery system.

Here is my very last transportation news of the year 2023. Read about buses that generate parking tickets and also about some new underground news.

On a recent visit to Nuremberg, Germany, I had the opportunity to ride a driverless train on the Nuremberg subway.{{ double-space-with-newline }}It is the only fully automated subway in Germany. And although the first automated subway line opened in 2008, not all lines are automated today. I asked myself: Why is it that fully automated subways are not more widespread, even though the technology has been around for more than 15 years?

CargoCap is an innovative system that seeks to reduce the amount of delivery truck traffic in our cities. Fully automated capsules travel through a tunnel system connecting major logistical destinations within cities.{{ double-space-with-newline }}In this article I will present this idea and try to give an outlook on its potential advantages and disadvantages.