Chinese engineers move a 30,000-tonne bus terminal in 40 days by sliding the entire building across the ground along rolling tracks
- Workers in Xiamen moved the station to a nearby street to make way for railways
- They put 532 hydraulic jacks under the massive building and laid rolling tracks
- The hydraulic jacks would rise and move forwards, bringing the structure along
- Time-lapse footage shows how the five-storey terminal made a 90-degrees turn
Engineers in a Chinese city have moved a bus terminal to a new location by pushing the entire five-storey building across the ground.
To relocate the massive 30,000-tonne structure whole, workers put hundreds of hydraulic jacks under it and laid rolling tracks for it to slide along.
The building is equivalent to four Eiffel Towers in weight and was moved in the space of 40 days to give way to bullet trains.
The Houxi Long Distance Bus Station in China was pushed forwards along railings to relocate
Hundreds of hydraulic jacks would rise and move forwards, bringing the structure along
The Houxi Long Distance Bus Station is situated in the Jimei District of Xiamen, a port city in south-eastern China’s Fujian Province.
With three storeys above the ground and two underneath, the 260 million yuan (£30 million) station opened to the public in 2015 after five years of construction.
But a latest transport plan from the city required the terminal to move to a nearby street to facilitate a high-speed railway project.
After rounds of consultations, the city’s authorities decided to push the entire building from one street to another.
The ambitious move would require the building to make a 90-degree turn horizontally using one side of it as the centre point.
The building measures 162 metres (531 feet) long and 33.6 metres (110 feet) wide. The far side would need to slide along the ground for as far as 288 metres (945 feet) to help the building reach the destination.
The bus terminal is situated in Jimei District in Xiamen (pictured), a port city in Fujian Province
Moving such a heavy and large building quickly is an unprecedented challenge.
Prior to the move, workers had dug into the ground and remove the soil between the building’s original location and the new location.
The also put railings along the ground in the fan-shaped area.
Then they lifted the building off the ground and put 532 hydraulic jacks underneath.
Those are special hydraulic jacks that can move forwards automatically after pushing the structure up, bringing the building with them, according to the local Haixi Morning Post.
The ambitious move was carried out to make room for a new high-speed railway project
The hydraulic jacks were divided into two groups, both controlled by computers.
The first group would rise, ‘step’ forwards and go down before the second group repeat the same motions. This would create a visual illusion that the building had been ‘walking’.
The hydraulic jacks worked 24 hours without a stop and the bus terminal was pushed forwards for 10 to 20 metres (32.8 to 65.6 feet) a day.
A time-lapse video, released by HVideo, has captured how the five-storey terminal made a 90-degrees turn in just over a month.
The move began on February 21 and was completed on Monday.