Kansai International Airport (KIX) is the main international airport of Japan's Kansai region, including the cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe.
Kansai International Airport was built at exorbitant cost on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, some 40 kilometers to the south of the city of Osaka.
The airport's single terminal, designed by star Italian architect Renzo Piano, is reputedly the longest building in the world at 1.7 kilometers, over one mile, from end to end. Arrivals are on the 1st floor, while departures are from the 4th floor.
Kansai opened in 1994 to relieve undercapacity at Osaka International Airport, which is closer to the city of Osaka and now handles only domestic flights.The second runway was opened on 2 August 2007. Kansai Airport has become an Asian hub, with 499 weekly flights to Asia, 66 weekly flights to Europe and the Middle East, and 35 weekly flights to North America. It was ranked 4th overall in the Airport of the Year 2006 awards named by Skytrax, after Singapore Changi Airport, Hong Kong International Airport and Munich Airport.
The construction of the man-made island, 4 km (2.5 mi) long and 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide started in 1987.Engineers needed to overcome the extremely high risks of earthquakes and typhoons (with storm surges of up to 3 m (10 ft).The sea wall was finished in 1989 (made of rock and 48,000 tetrahedral concrete blocks). In 1990, a three kilometer bridge was completed to connect the island to the mainland at Rinku Town, at a cost of $1 billion.
The total cost of Kansai Airport so far is $20 billion. This includes land reclamation, two runways, terminal and facilities. Most additional costs were initially due to the island sinking, expected due to the soft soils of Osaka Bay. After construction the rate of sinking was considered so severe that the airport was widely criticized as a geotechnical engineering disaster. The sink rate has since fallen from 50 cm (20 in) during 1994 to 7 cm (2.8 in) in 2008.
It really seems unique in the world and I can imagine how amazing experience would be arriving in this airport and also to go throw on that long bridge!!!!! And it is also very interesting that in Japan there is no more place to build such big things so they started to use the see as well :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I also like that the architecture is Italian so also Europe is present in this unique monument!
You find very interesting and beautiful places Markius!!! I like your blog and looking forward to the next post!!!!!
thank you very much again for your nice comment, i 'll do my best to find interesting places hoping that you 'll like !
ReplyDelete