Talented engineers from year to year develop ambitious projects designed to make the life of the world's population more comfortable and safe. Billions of dollars are being spent on building power plants, bridges, tunnels, and even artificial islands.
Today we suggest you take a look at Top 10 most expensive buildings in the world. Naturally, we included only modern objects in the top ten, since we should not even try to estimate the cost of such structures as the Great Wall of China, the Kremlin and the Pyramids of Giza.
10. Qingdao Bridge over the Bay, China ($ 6 billion)
This bridge has already been "marked" in our Top 10 longest bridges in the world. The characteristics of this grandiose structure are as follows: 42 km long and six lanes for traffic. More than 30 thousand cars drive through the bridge daily.
9. Large Hadron Collider, Switzerland ($ 6 billion)
The charged particle accelerator was designed and built by specialists from 3 dozen countries. The construction has impressive dimensions - the length of the main ring of the famous accelerator is 26 thousand meters. By the way, the name collider comes from the English verb “collide”, which means “collide”. After all, particle beams are accelerated inside the collider in opposite directions and collide at the allotted points.
8. Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline (TAN), USA ($ 8 billion)
A 1288 km long oil pipeline crosses Alaska from north to south. TAN is one of the largest oil pipelines in the world and is owned by Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. The construction includes the pipeline itself, 12 pumping stations and a terminal in the American city of Valdez.
7. The artificial island of Palm Jumeirah, UAE ($ 14 billion)
The construction of the island in the form of a palm tree was carried out from 2001 to 2006. The size of the artificial "Palm" is 5x5 km, and the area is more than 800 football fields. The grandiose creation of human hands is visible from the orbit of the Earth with the naked eye. Today, the artificial island has residential areas, private villas, hotels and a water park.
6. The Great Boston Tunnel, USA ($ 14.8 billion)
The most expensive building in US history is an 8-lane highway, which was attended by 5,000 workers. By the way, mobile communications do not work in the tunnel, since the epoxy resin used to connect the walls may not support the additional weight of the base stations.
5. Three Gorges Hydroelectric Power Station, China ($ 25 billion)
The largest operating power plant in the world is located on the Yangtze River near the town of Sandouping. In order to allocate space for a huge reservoir created at the dam of the hydroelectric power station, the Chinese government relocated 1.3 million people to other parts of the country.
4. Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Station, Brazil / Paraguay ($ 27 billion)
The huge hydroelectric power station on the Parana River is the world leader in generating electricity per year. The power plant provides more than 20% of Brazil's electricity needs and about half of Paraguay's needs. By the way, in 2009, due to the Itaipu accident, more than 50 million Brazilians and almost the entire population of Paraguay were left without electricity for a day.
3. Al Maktoum International Airport, UAE ($ 33 billion)
Dubai’s air gate leads our recently published Top 5 largest airports in the world. Currently, the airport operates only partially, but after completion of all work, this huge complex will let in almost 160 million passengers a year.
2. Cheklapkok Airport, Hong Kong ($ 20 billion)
Most of this airport is located on an artificial island, which explains the rather big cost of construction. Three airport terminals pass almost 50 million passengers and 4 million tons of cargo per year.
1. International Space Station ($ 157 billion)
15 countries took part in the creation of the ISS. The preliminary design of the station was approved in 1995, and in November 1998, Russia launched its first element into orbit - the functional-cargo block Zarya. Today, the ISS is the most expensive structure created by mankind in modern history.
