Most active commenters

    ←back to thread

    Robots move Shanghai city block [video]

    (www.youtube.com)
    140 points surprisetalk | 20 comments | 03 Jul 25 14:02 UTC | HN request time: 1.043s | source | bottom
    1. bmmayer1 ◴[04 Jul 25 22:36 UTC] No.44468501[source]▶
    This is incredible -- serious question -- has anything of this scale been done in the US or Europe? Do we even have the technology?
    replies(14): >>44468515 #>>44468545 #>>44468554 #>>44468637 #>>44468655 #>>44468814 #>>44469127 #>>44469172 #>>44469207 #>>44469889 #>>44469981 #>>44470068 #>>44472545 #>>44472781 #
    2. mmsc ◴[04 Jul 25 22:40 UTC] No.44468515[source]▶
    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.
    3. janfoeh ◴[04 Jul 25 22:44 UTC] No.44468545[source]▶
    Here is the Kaisersaal in Berlin being moved on air cushions in 1996 [1]. And wasn't a better part of Chicago jacked up building by building some time in the 19th century to make room for a sewage system?

    [1] https://www.bz-berlin.de/archiv-artikel/hier-schwebt-ein-den...

    replies(1): >>44470556 #
    4. crooked-v ◴[04 Jul 25 22:45 UTC] No.44468554[source]▶
    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.
    replies(2): >>44469523 #>>44469989 #
    5. piptastic ◴[04 Jul 25 22:57 UTC] No.44468637[source]▶
    not quite the same scale area wise, but interesting nonetheless https://www.archdaily.com/973183/the-building-that-moved-how...

    As for your actual question, I'm pretty sure we (US, Europe, humans in general) could do quite a bit more than we do now if we had a reason to do so. (or were 100% sure about the results)

    6. dcrazy ◴[04 Jul 25 23:01 UTC] No.44468655[source]▶
    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.

    replies(1): >>44468736 #
    7. pxc ◴[04 Jul 25 23:12 UTC] No.44468736[source]▶
    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.

    8. mayneack ◴[04 Jul 25 23:24 UTC] No.44468814[source]▶
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel#Relocation

    In the 60s a massive stone monument was moved 200m up in elevation to avoid being flooded by a dam.

    9. foxglacier ◴[05 Jul 25 00:24 UTC] No.44469127[source]▶
    Not the same scale but the 4-story concrete building The Museum Hotel in New Zealand was moved on rails in the 1990's https://www.rejigit.co.nz/database/redactor_images/large/689...

    Maybe the scale of these other moves were limited by not having the adaptable height jacks to keep everything straight.

    10. slyall ◴[05 Jul 25 00:34 UTC] No.44469172[source]▶
    Moving single buildings is pretty common

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

    11. funkaster ◴[05 Jul 25 00:41 UTC] No.44469207[source]▶
    lower tech/scale but in Chile (in the island of Chiloe) they have been doing this for centuries for individual houses: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/moving-houses-of-chilo... - although no smart jacks, only bulls and people.
    12. wenc ◴[05 Jul 25 01:54 UTC] No.44469523[source]▶
    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).

    13. dluan ◴[05 Jul 25 03:23 UTC] No.44469889[source]▶
    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

    14. seabass ◴[05 Jul 25 03:54 UTC] No.44469981[source]▶
    The town of Kiruna in Sweden is currently being relocated because it is sinking into the iron mine that originally led to the founding of the town. Some buildings are being relocated on tracks in a similar way to that Shanghai video.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/05/why-a-swedish-...

    15. userbinator ◴[05 Jul 25 03:55 UTC] No.44469989[source]▶
    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.

    16. gbil ◴[05 Jul 25 04:28 UTC] No.44470068[source]▶
    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...

    17. quakeguy ◴[05 Jul 25 06:36 UTC] No.44470556[source]▶
    The Sonic Youth Gig there was awesome ;)
    18. orbital-decay ◴[05 Jul 25 13:05 UTC] No.44472545[source]▶
    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.

    replies(1): >>44472966 #
    19. timmb ◴[05 Jul 25 13:45 UTC] No.44472781[source]▶
    In Romania in the 80s, a number of churches were moved to make space for new building projects. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/dec/14/bucharest-mov...
    20. hombre_fatal ◴[05 Jul 25 14:16 UTC] No.44472966[source]▶
    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.