Measured in Metric

This episode comes via special request from a listener, and is the first engineering project of its kind on the podcast: The Port of Buenos Aires. 

Being the first port on the podcast we get the opportunity not just to discover the history of the project itself but also to learn about the complex multidisciplinary field of port engineering. This field requires a wide array of expertise ranging from naval architecture and the hydrodynamics of ships to geotechnical engineering, record keeping, security, navigation, logistics, and much more. 

Located in the capital of Argentina, the Port of Buenos Aires handles as much as 85% of the cargo shipped into the country today. However getting to this point the project had to work through a great deal of bad luck and unfortunate timing. When Buenos Aires was first established as a port city by the Spanish back in 1580, the water level along the coastline required passengers and goods to be transferred from larger ships to smaller ships and then brought to shore. 

Nearly 3 centuries later in 1868 the Argentine congress commissioned technical studies to build a more modern port in order to support more modern trade. As with many projects, this was held up by internal politics for a full 3 years, but eventually a pier was built that stretched out into the water so smaller ships could dock there, a method that is still seen around the world particularly in tourist destinations. In 1884 the design of a major 4 dock complex would be started by Sir John Hawkshaw, the former president of the UK’s Institute of Civil Engineers. The first of these 4 docks would be completed in 1888 and just two years later Argentina would be hit by The Panic, a financial crisis resulting from a London bank facing bankruptcy as a result of taking on risk on poor investments in Argentina. While ultimately Argentina was able to recover from The Panic it would severely delay the construction of the port, stretching out the completion of the project to 1897.

The turn of the 20th century was sa time of rapid advancement and quick progress, which unfortuantely meant the port would quickly be obsolete for servicing new larger ships and it had completely reached capacity by 1907. Plans for new docks would be approved in 1911 but these plans were also severely delayed, this time by the first World War. These expansions were finally completed fifteen years later in 1926, and those expansions are largely how the port remains today. 

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Music by: John Julius – Bandcamp.com

Edited by: Astronomic Audio

For our first monument on the African continent we examine the The Great Zimbabwe. This Iron Age city in southern Africa lies mostly in ruins today, but at the height of its power between the 11th and 15th century housed as many as 20,000 people. We’ll discuss what we know about this site today, and how colonialism stands in the way of a more complete picture of its history.

The ruins of The Great Zimbabwe extend over an enormous 80 hectares or 800,000 km², dwarfing the size of modern cities such as Toronto at only 630 km². This massive settlement was a major trade centre for crops, animals, gold, as well as minerals, with ample evidence of their trade routes extending as far as China. It is estimated that over 3 centuries more than 40% of the world’s mined gold came from this area, which is supported by the more than 4000 gold mines and 500 copper mines surrounding the site, in addition to the roughly 2000 goldsmiths, potters, weavers, blacksmiths, and stonemasons living in the area.

The layout and construction of The Great Zimbabwe exhibits an impressive level of architectural planning, and the settlement even had its own drainage system that is largely still functional today, centuries later. It is made up of 3 main zones, the hill complex being the oldest dating back to the 9th century, which was used as the spiritual and religious centre of the city up until the 13th century. The surrounding zone, known as the great enclosure is the most iconic part of the city featuring a huge circular wall made up of cut granite blocks a whopping 5m thick and as much as 11m high. This wall is made up of as many as 900,000 professionally sliced individual blocks held together without any mortar, just sheer gravity and precision. The conical tower at the centre of the great enclosure is constructed with the same high precision methods, and the outer wall is decorated with soapstone sculptures of a bird that is also featured on Zimbabwe’s flag. The final zone, known as the valley complex, was made up largely of living spaces and could be considered the suburbs of the city. This area was home to the thousands of artisans and the trade centres that sustained the city.

By the end of the 15th century the city was largely abandoned, possibly because of soil destruction leading to the supporting agriculture no longer being upkeep. The reasons for this city being abandoned may be lost to time as a result of rampant plundering of the site during the 19th and 20th century by Europeans. For over a century these colonists were in denial about the city being built by the African people, and in addition to attributing the construction to Biblical myths there was active destruction of evidence at the site. These efforts at obstruction of history continued right up until 1979 and included the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia issuing official guidebooks showing images of Africans bowing down to foreigners who had supposedly built The Great Zimbabwe. This came to an end in 1980 when the country gained independence from Britain and was renamed to Zimbabwe in honour of the site. The ruins were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986 and while the general consensus now is that it was built by the ancestors of the Shona people, much of the history is still unknown, having either destroyed or plundered, or not yet uncovered.

CORRECTION: The audio and show notes for this episode indicate that The Great Zimbabwe extended over 800,000 km², which is incorrect. The Great Zimbabwe extended over 800,000 m²

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Image Gallery

Site | Narrow curved passageway | Conical tower | Entrance | Soapstone Birds

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Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram

Music by: John Julius – Bandcamp.com

Edited by: Astronomic Audio

In honour of International Women in Engineering Day on June 23rd we’re breaking the usual format to share a panel-style interview featuring current and former colleagues of Vivian, Pippa Higgins and Arianne Cowx.

Throughout this episode John interviews Vivian, Arianne, and Pippa, looking for insights from their personal experiences within the engineering industry. Throughout this discussion we explore concepts including workplace diversity, being bullied by clients or having their credentials questioned, the importance of role models, mentors and allies, and the work that each of them are most proud to have put their stamp on.

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Vivian Yu is a Professional Civil Engineer and Project Manager with Mott MacDonald, specializing in transit infrastructure. Vivian has experience working across Canada from Western Canada to Ontario, and globally in the US and Australia as well.

Vivian Yu: linkedin | photo – Vivian on top of tracks she designed | photo – Willis Way Grand River Transit station | photo – University of Waterloo Grand River Transit station

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Pippa Higgins is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Senior Design Manager at Mott MacDonald with over 20 years of experience with design, construction, and management of large multidisciplinary projects. She is currently on the Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS) mentoring program and is an active promoter of women in engineering.

Pippa Higgins: linkedin | photo – Orion Building, Birmingham, UK

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Arianne Cowx is a Professional Civil Engineer and Project Engineer with Parsons. Her experience has primarily been in the transit and transportation realm, ranging from heavy rail projects to major highway construction.

Arianne Cowx: linkedin | photo – QEW Welland River Bridge | video – Dougall Pedestrian Underpass and Multi-Use Trail

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Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram

Music by: John Julius – Bandcamp.com

Edited by: Astronomic Audio

Spanning over 20,000km and connecting eras of China’s history across more than two millennia, this episode we discuss an engineering monument visible from low earth orbit, The Great Wall of China.

In the west we typically learn that the wall was built to protect northern China from Mongolian invaders but the true story is a bit more complicated. The history of the Great Wall dates all the way back to the 7th century BCE, before the unification of China. At the time the region that makes up modern day China was home to a number of civilizations who built a number of walls to protect themselves from each other, and many of these smaller walls would later be joined under the rule of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, in the 3rd century BCE.

This first iteration of the unified Great Wall was built to protect China’s capital at the time, Xi’an, as well as the silk road trade route, although most of this wall does not exist today. Nearly a century later during the Ming dynasty (the period of time made famous by the movie “Mulan”) there was a need for a much more robust wall as conflicts with Mongolia had evolved into a war between the two countries. 

We typically discuss the budget of the projects on the podcast, but due to a lack of written records from the time beyond songs and poetry and due to the fact that the wall was built, re-built, and maintained over the course of many centuries it is impossible to accurately estimate the cost in a monetary sense. Some researchers estimate it may have taken roughly 90,000 man-hours to construct, although this estimate may not be too accurate given the constant repairs and fortifications made to the wall.

After Mongolia ceased to be a military threat to China many parts of the wall were taken down to be used for building materials for cities and villages, and some other parts simply eroded away. Many other sections of the wall still stand today and are maintained as tourist attractions. The Great Wall has been declared one of the 7 wonders of the modern world by UNESCO, is generally the only human made structure to be included in the topography of maps, and is often said to be visible from the moon. However, NASA has confirmed this is not the case, although it is visible from orbit.

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Image Gallery

The Great Wall | Great Wall map | Great Wall from Space (NOT visible from the moon confirms NASA) | Great Wall through the desert | Rammed earth section | In the snow

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Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram

Music by: John Julius – Bandcamp.com

Edited by: Astronomic Audio

The topic for this episode comes straight out of our figurative backyard – The CN Tower! This iconic Canadian landmark was the world’s tallest building from its opening in 1976 right up until 2007 and today we find out how and why this concrete and steel behemoth was built.

Originally built and owned by CN Rail, the CN tower was initially built to house UHF and VHF transmitters as Toronto’s skyline became more crowed in the 1960s and existing TV and radio transmitters had become more and more obstructed. Construction began in 1973 at a cost of $63 million CAD at the time (the equivalent of $350 million CAD today), with a return on CN’s investment only 15 years later, just 4 years prior to ownership being transferred to Canada Lands in 1995.

John has a bit of an axe to grind about including the 104m of steel antenna in the height of the tower rather than capping the measurement with the 450m of concrete shaft, claiming that this is the equivalent of measuring a hat in a person’s height. However, most people’s hats aren’t responsible for providing television and radio signals for a major Canadian city for close to 5 decades so we should potentially make an exception. This enormous antenna was originally the primary purpose for building the tower but today while still operational it broadcasts just 16 channels with the broadcasting making up less than 1% of the tower’s revenue, as it is now primarily a tourist destination with more than 2 million visitors during a normal year.

Being constructed prior to computational modelling meant an enormous number of manual calculations, and designed drafted by hand with pens, ink and slide rules. With a capacity to withstand wind speeds of up to 418km per hour and earthquakes up to 8.5 on the Richter Scale, the CN tower made use of a number of impressive construction techniques such as pre- and post-tensioned cables and also contains copper cables running the entire height of the tower.

Declared one of the modern 7 wonders of the world by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1995, the CN Tower is truly an icon of Canada and the city affectionally known as “the 6ix”, Toronto. 

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Image Gallery

The CN Tower as seen from Front St | A towering night time view | John repping all things Toronto | CN Tower, Toronto’s rail lines, and the top of Rogers Centre | Aerial view of the CN Tower, Rogers Centre, and the Toronto Harbour | A view of the CN Tower and Toronto skyline from Lake Ontario

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Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com | Facebook | Instagram

Music by: John Julius – Bandcamp.com

Edited by: Astronomic Audio