Moving buildings is a challenging endeavor but engineering makes a lot possible when it comes to the need to relocate a construction. When playing video games, we can oftentimes just move buildings in a city simulation. In reality, however, the move of a large construction is not as easy. Maybe you’ve seen a family home being transported on a truck, but that’s rare enough. In Huaihai Road, Shanghai, China, they had to move a five-story building which has been originally constructed to be the Lagena Primary School in 1935.
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Due to new city plans, the move was required to make room for other projects. They generally use more mature methods to relocate buildings like slide rail relocation or flatbed relocation in China. Still, neither was possible in this case, so they had to think of another way. They came up with the idea of using a little army of walking robots that could be synchronized to move in unison without causing any structural damages to the building itself.
When only walking-style robots can relocate your building
While this might not be the most mature option, there is to move buildings like this primary school. It sure looks quite futuristic when you look at the video footage of the project. It feels very much like watching a scene from a video game taking place. Sure it takes a lot of time to relocate a large structure that weighs 7,600 tons, but it arrived safely at their new home spot with the help of 200 support units after an 18-days long move.
The Pacific Xintiandi Business Center, which will take parts of the original placement of the school, is planned to finish the construction activity in 2023. Li Jianfeng, general manager of Pacific Xintiandi Business Center, overviewing the construction project management, states, “We will carry out comprehensive renovation work on the Lagena Primary School after the relocation. We plan to transform the school into a building integrating cultural education, intangible heritage preservation, and involving both culture and innovation. We hope to inject new vitality into the building”.
YouTube: Building in Shanghai Relocates through Walking-Style (Translation)
Photo credit: The feature image is a still frame from the video and is owned by CCTV.
Source: CCTV+
