Unique Japanese airport built in middle of sea starts sinking

Where is Kansai Airport located?

Kansai International Airport (Kansai Airport) is a Japanese private international airport.

It is located on artificial islands specially created in Osaka Bay (southwest of Osaka).

Kansai Airport in Osaka Bay (screenshot: google.com/maps)

If you take a closer look at this object on the map, you can see that it is connected to the city by a single road.

Kansai International Airport on the map (screenshot: google.com/maps)

Opening of Kansai Airport

The first part of the international airport (one runway on one artificial island) was opened in the fall of 1994 against the background of:

• the impossibility of expanding the existing airport in Osaka (due to the terrain and residential areas);
• the growing need for transportation relief in the region.

In September 2007, a second runway was put into operation on another artificial island.

In total, the construction of the airport cost more than $20 billion.

View of the airport with the terminal building (photo: en.wikipedia.org)

Challenges during construction

During the construction of the airport, engineers and architects faced incredible challenges:

• construction of grandiose artificial islands on viscous soil in the sea bay;
• construction of a large-scale international airport (runways and terminals) on them, taking into account the instability of rocks, as well as the likelihood of earthquakes and typhoons.

Most of the processes were carried out under the latest technologies of the time and were monitored by satellites and computers.

The second stage of airport construction (photo: en.wikipedia.org)

What is known about the flooding and prospects

Throughout its existence, Kansai International Airport has withstood both earthquakes and typhoons. Over time, experts began to notice that it was sinking into the water, albeit slowly, due to the subsidence of artificial islands.

Today, the airport is slowly moving away from the city limits and has sunk almost 12 meters, but it continues to serve passengers.

At the same time, engineers are most concerned not about the rate of sinking, but about the fact that the surface of the facility is no longer uniform. Experts estimate that the middle part of the airport may sink faster than its edges.

Airport flooding during a typhoon (photo: en.wikipedia.org)

The Daily Express clarifies that during the design, engineers allowed for partial flooding of the structure over time, but believed that in about 50 years the process would stop at 4 meters above water (the minimum allowable height to prevent flooding).

According to contemporaries, the airport is likely to continue sinking. If this is true, it may cease to exist by 2056 (when the artificial islands will sink to an extremely low height).