J220 Changsha Sky City One China: Chinese developer to build tallest skyscraper in 90 days; Broad Construction says 220 story tower will contain a school, hospital, 17 helipads, apartments for 30000 people
Tweet Topic Started: 14 Aug 2012, 02:17 AM (6,251 Views)
It's a mixed story. We are off the hype and in the doldrums, but they will get it right in the end.
The minister of railways was skimming about 2% off the top of every contract. Last year they put him in jail and got a new minister of railways who is sweeping clean and making sure everything bad that happened under his predecessor is well-known. (Like Campbell Newman).
Railway construction pretty-much stopped for 12 months while a lot of reviews went on, but it has started again, but with less emphasis on the high-speed trains and more on trains that have a better economic business case.
I can still take a HS train from Beijing to Shanghai (a touch further than BNE-MEL) in just under 5 hours for half the price of a plane. Given that it is city-city and you only need to get to the station 15 mins before departure instead of 45 mins, and it is never delayed, it is a strong competitor to the plane even though it travels at 300km/h instead of design speed which is average 350km/h.
How much does the HS train Beijing to Shanghai cost? Are there multiple classes? Cheers.
How much does the HS train Beijing to Shanghai cost? Are there multiple classes? Cheers.
Economy class is RMB550 (about A$80) and first class is twice that, I think.
As a comparison, the standard full economy air ticket is RMB1100, but you can usually get a ticket for 800 or so, and even cheaper if you book well in advance on an unpopular flight.
Economy on a train is more comfortable than first class on a plane, of course.
Edit: Plane tickets also attract a fuel levy of about RMB100, I think.
Economy class is RMB550 (about A$80) and first class is twice that, I think.
As a comparison, the standard full economy air ticket is RMB1100, but you can usually get a ticket for 800 or so, and even cheaper if you book well in advance on an unpopular flight.
Economy on a train is more comfortable than first class on a plane, of course.
Edit: Plane tickets also attract a fuel levy of about RMB100, I think.
I can still take a HS train from Beijing to Shanghai (a touch further than BNE-MEL) in just under 5 hours for half the price of a plane. Given that it is city-city and you only need to get to the station 15 mins before departure instead of 45 mins, and it is never delayed, it is a strong competitor to the plane even though it travels at 300km/h instead of design speed which is average 350km/h.
Who takes the train? The business or leisure traveller?
I travel from Brisbane to Sydney around 6 times a year for business. Either just for the day or overnight. Leave home at 5am > flight at 6.30. $80 cab fare to the airport. arrive at Sydney airport around 8.00am; cab to meeting, get there at 9am for another $50 cab fare. $50 cab fare back to the airport, arrive in Brisbane at 8.30pm, another $80 cab fare home. The airfare is probably only a hundred each way. cost = $160+100 + 200= $460 travel for the day.
I wonder how that would compare to a high speed train? I think the key is suburban service to get you to the city hub.
Who takes the train? The business or leisure traveller?
I travel from Brisbane to Sydney around 6 times a year for business. Either just for the day or overnight. Leave home at 5am > flight at 6.30. $80 cab fare to the airport. arrive at Sydney airport around 8.00am; cab to meeting, get there at 9am for another $50 cab fare. $50 cab fare back to the airport, arrive in Brisbane at 8.30pm, another $80 cab fare home. The airfare is probably only a hundred each way. cost = $160+100 + 200= $460 travel for the day.
I wonder how that would compare to a high speed train? I think the key is suburban service to get you to the city hub.
I haven't taken the train yet so don't know the mix. I suspect it is both. I do know people who have taken it for business and say they have given up on the plane. Cab fares are not such a huge problem for travellers of either stripe. The real reason business travellers hate the plane is that in summer and winter delays of hours are almost a given on that route. There always seems to be thunderstorms in between (summer) or fog at either end (winter.)
tourists care about price and businesspeople care about convenience. It's competitive for both. Going to Shanghai is pretty-much an overnighter unless you only have an afternoon meeting anyway. You have to leave yourself 3 hours to spare on the way down in case of delays and coming back you run the risk of getting home at 3am on an "8pm" flight.
I also did regular same-day trips to Sydney for a series of meetings back in the 1990s. Talk about a recipe for a rotten day.
According to its engineers, this will be the tallest skyscraper in the world by the end of March of 2013. Its name is Sky City, and its 2,749 feet (838 meters) distributed in 220 floors will grow in just 90 days in Changsha city, by the Xiangjiang river. Ninety days!
It's not a joke. According to the construction company, the skyscraper will be built in just 90 days at the unbelievable rate of five floors per day.
It's hard to believe, but they claim the building has been designed by some of the engineers who previously worked at the Burj Khalifa. It is also the same firm that built a full 30-story hotel in 15 days—which yes, is still standing and in perfect working condition.
Foundation work is beginning at the end of the month, once the Chinese authorities give the final go ahead to the project.
Pre-fab magic
They will be able to achieve this impossibly fast construction rate by using a prefabricated modular technology developed by Broad Sustainable Building, a company that has built 20 tall structures in China so far, including the that 30-story hotel.
Since they built that hotel, the company has been perfecting their technology, which they are now claiming will turn their project into the world's tallest skyscraper in just three months. That's a whooping five floors per day, which seems just absurd. According to Construction Week Online, the company is very serious about it. The senior VP of the Broad Group, Juliet Jiang, has publicly said that they "will go on as planned with the completion of five storeys a day."
Record numbers
Unlike the Burj Khalifa, the tower will be mostly habitable. Its final height will be 2,749 feet high (838 meters). Compared that to the Burj's 2,719 feet (829 meters), which include the spire at the top resulting in a total of 163 floors.
Sky City will use an astonishing 220,000 tons of steel. The structure will be able to house 31,400 people of both "high and low income communities". The company says that the residential area will use 83-percent of the building, while the rest will be offices, schools, hospitals, shops and restaurants. People will move up and down using 104 high speed elevators.
The record figures don't stop there: in addition to the 90-day construction time—as opposed to the 210 days initially reported by the Chinese media—the company claims it will cost $1,500 per square meter as opposed to the Burj's $15,000 per square meter, all thanks to the prefab technology.
They also claim it will be able to sustain earthquakes of a 9.0 magnitude and be resistant to fire for "up to three hours," as well as be extremely energy efficient thanks to thermal insulation, four-panned windows and different air conditioning techniques that were already used in their previous constructions.
To be honest, it all seems like a tall tale to me—no pun intended. Although the credentials of the company seem to be quite serious, one thing is to build a 30-story hotel in 15 days and the other is to built the largest skyscraper in the world in 90 days. It just boggles the mind. Maybe it was April's Fool in China yesterday.
Whatever it is, we will discover it in March. If it's confirmed, the time-lapse videos are going to be epic.
Building booms, especially the construction of the tallest buildings in the world, coincide with economic crises according to the Barclays Skyscraper Index. And the height of the buildings also reflect the extent of the crisis.
For instance, the construction of three record breaking buildings, 40 Wall Street, the Chrysler building and the Empire State building coincided with the Great Depression. Most recently, the construction of the Burj Khalifa coincided with the current global recession.
Judging by the Skyscraper Index, investors may want to be wary of the construction boom in China and India. China is expected to complete about 65 of its 124 skyscrapers under construction over the next six years. Meanwhile, India is planning to complete 14 skyscrapers over the next five years, including the Tower of India, which would be the second tallest building in the world.
This is because the construction of skyscraper booms indicate a widespread misallocation of capital and eventually, an economic correction.
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