First Edition, 2012 ISBN 978-81-323-3720-1 All rights reserved. Published by: University Publications 4735/22 Prakashdeep Bldg, Ansari Road, Darya Ganj, Delhi - 110002 Email: info@wtbooks.com

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Construction Engineering

Chapter 2 - Construction Structures and Infrastructures

Chapter 3 - Building

Chapter 4 - Infrastructure

Chapter 5 - Great Wall of China

Chapter 6 - Suez Canal

Chapter 7 - Interstate 5

Chapter- 1

Construction Engineering

Construction engineering concerns the planning and management of the construction of structures such as highways, bridges, airports, railroads, buildings, dams, and reservoirs. Construction of such projects requires knowledge of engineering and management principles and business procedures, economics, and human behavior. Construction engineers engage in the design of temporary structures, quality assurance and quality control, building and site layout surveys, on site material testing, concrete mix design, cost estimating, planning and scheduling, safety engineering, materials procurement, and cost engineering and budgeting.

Career The construction industry in the United States provides employment to millions with all types and levels of education. Construction contributes 14% of the United States Gross National Product. Construction engineering provides much of the design aspect used both in the construction office and in the field on project sites. To complete projects construction engineers rely on plans and specifications created by architects, engineers and other constructors. During most of the 20th century structures have been first designed then engineering staff ensure it is built to plans and specifications by testing and overseeing the construction. Prior to the 20th century and more commonly since the start of the 21st century structures are designed and built in combination allowing for site considerations and construction methods to influence the design process

Work activities

Construction engineers have a wide range of work areas. Typically, entry level construction engineers analyze topographical information. Construction engineers also have to use computer software to design hydraulic systems and structures while following construction codes. Keeping a workplace safe is key to having a successful construction company. It is the construction engineer's job to make sure that everything is conducted correctly. In addition to safety, the construction engineer has to make sure that the site stays clean and sanitary. They have to make sure that there are no impediments in the way of the structure's planned location and must move any that exist. Finally, more

seasoned construction engineers will assume the role of project management on a construction site and are involved heavily with the construction schedule and document control as well as budget and cost control. Their role on site is to provide construction information, including repairs, requests for information, change orders and payment applications.

Construction engineers should have strong understanding for math and science, but many other skills are required, including critical thinking, listening, learning, problem solving, monitoring and decision making. Construction engineers have to be able to think about all aspects of a problem and listen to others ideas so that they can learn everything about a project before it begins. During project construction they must solve the problems that they encounter using math and science. Construction engineers must maintain project control of labor and equipment for safety, to ensure the project is on schedule and monitor quality control. When a problem occurs it is the construction engineer who will create and enact a solution.

Abilities

A construction engineer is really a combination of two different fields joined into one concentration. The engineer must be educated with the scientific background to be able to solve various problems and have the ability to be able to have the skills to design and calculate different project. On the other side of the engineers education is the ability to be able to manage different types of people in the work force. Traditional educations only focus on either the engineering side of the equation or the management side of the equation, but the construction engineering field combines both sides of the equation together, to better educate people to become more well rounded employees.

Educational requirements

A typical construction engineering curriculum is a mixture of engineering mechanics, engineering design, construction management and general science and mathematics. This usually leads to a Bachelor of Science degree. The B.S. degree along with some construction experience is sufficient for most entry level construction engineering jobs. Graduate school may be an option for those who want to go further in depth of the construction and engineering subjects taught at the undergraduate level. In most cases construction engineering graduates look to either civil engineering, engineering management, or business administration as a possible graduate degree. For authority to approve any final designs of public projects (and most any project), a construction engineer must have a professional engineers (P.E.) license. To obtain a P.E. license the Fundamentals of Engineering exam and Principles and Practice in Engineering Exam must be passed and education and experience requirements met.

Job prospects

Job prospects for construction engineers generally have a strong cyclical variation. For example, starting in 2008 - continuing until at least 2011 - job prospects have been poor

due to the collapse of housing bubbles in many parts of the world. This sharply reduced demand for construction, and as a result, forced construction professionals towards infrastructure construction and therefore increased the competition faced by established and new construction engineers. This increased competition, and a core reduction in quantity demand is in parallel with a possible shift in the demand for construction engineers due to the automation of many engineering tasks, overall resulting in reduced prospects for construction engineers. In early 2010 the United States construction industry had a 27% unemployment rate, this is nearly three times higher than the 9.7% national average unemployment rate. The construction unemployment rate (including tradesmen) is comparable to the United States 1933 unemployment rate - the lowest point of the Great Depression - of 25% .

Chapter- 2

Construction Structures and Infrastructures

Highway A highway is a public road, especially a major road connecting two or more destinations. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a "highway transportation system". Each country has its own national highway system. Major highways are often named and numbered by the governments that typically develop and maintain them. Australia's Highway 1 is the longest national highway in the world at over 14,500 km (9,000 miles) and runs almost the entire way around the continent. The United States has the world's largest network of highways, including both the Interstate Highway System and the U.S. Highway System. At least one of these networks is present in every state and they interconnect most major cities. Some highways, like the Pan-American Highway or the European routes, span multiple countries. Some major highway routes include ferry services, such as U.S. Route 10, which crosses Lake Michigan.

Highway 401, the busiest highway in North America.

A German Autobahn in Lehrte.

The Makran Coastal Highway was an ancient road within Pakistan. Now it's a major road leading to the city of Gwadar

The SP-160, known as Rodovia dos Imigrantes, in southeastern Brazil.

Traditionally highways were used by people on foot or on horses. Later they also accommodated carriages, bicycles and eventually motor cars, facilitated by advancements in road construction. In the 1920s and 1930s many nations began investing heavily in progressively more modern highway systems to spur commerce and bolster national defense. Major modern highways that connect cities in populous developed and developing countries usually incorporate features intended to enhance the road's capacity, efficiency, and safety to various degrees. Such features include a reduction in the number of locations for user access, the use of dual carriageways with two or more lanes on each carriageway, and grade-separated junctions with other roads and modes of transport. These features are typically present on highways built as motorways (freeways).

Bridge

The Akashi-Kaiky Bridge in Japan, the world's longest suspension span.

The Si-o-se Pol bridge over Zayandeh River is the epitome of Safavid dynasty (15021722) bridge design. Esfahan, Iran

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed, the material used to make it and the funds available to build it.

Airport

Airport distribution in 2008

Airport sign

Airport Traffic sign

Airports in 2006

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps takeoff and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport. An airport consists of at least one surface such as a runway for a plane to takeoff and land, a helipad, or water for takeoffs and landings, and often includes buildings such as control towers, hangars and terminal buildings.

Larger airports may have fixed base operator services, seaplane docks and ramps, air traffic control, passenger facilities such as restaurants and lounges, and emergency services. A military airport is known as an airbase or air station. The terms aerodrome, airdrome, airfield, and airstrip may also be used to refer to airports, and the terms heliport, seaplane base, and STOLport refer to airports dedicated exclusively to helicopters, seaplanes, or short take-off and landing aircraft.

In colloquial use, the terms airport and aerodrome are often interchanged. However, in general, the term airport may imply or confer a certain stature upon the aviation facility that an aerodrome proper may not have achieved. In some jurisdictions, airport is a legal term of art reserved exclusively for those aerodromes certified or licensed as airports by the relevant governing organization (e.g. the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), or Transport Canada) after meeting specified certification criteria or regulatory requirements. That is to say, in the purest sense, all airports are aerodromes, but not all aerodromes are airports. Other jurisdictions define an airport as one that is furnished with the customs offices expected of a port of entry, though the more general term for such aerodromes is airport of entry. In jurisdictions where there is no legal distinction between aerodrome and airport, the terms are often used according to the users' or managers' preference.

Rail transport Rail transport is the means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on. Track usually consists of steel rails installed on sleepers/ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels, moves. However, other variations are also possible, such as slab track where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface.

Rolling stock in railway transportation systems generally has lower frictional resistance when compared with highway vehicles, and the passenger and freight cars (carriages and wagons) can be coupled into longer trains. The operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electrical power from a railway electrification system or produce their own power, usually by diesel engines. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system. Railways are a safe land transportation system when compared to other forms of transportation. Railway transportation is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo utilization and energy efficiency, but is often less

flexible and more capital-intensive than highway transportation is, when lower traffic levels are considered.

BNSF Railway freight service in the United States

German InterCityExpress

The oldest, man-hauled railways date to the 6th century B.C, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, credited with its invention. With the British development of the steam engine, it was possible to construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the industrial revolution. Also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods. The change from canals to railways allowed for "national markets" in which prices varied very little from city to city. Studies have shown that the invention and development of the railway in Europe was one of the most important technological inventions of the late 19th century for the United States, without which, GDP would have been lower by 7.0% in 1890. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways and rapid transit systems came into being. Starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan and a few other countries. Other forms of guided ground transportation outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use.

Dam

Hoover Dam, a concrete arch-gravity dam in Black Canyon of the Colorado River. Lake Mead in the background is impounded by the dam.

Glen Canyon Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees (also known as dikes) are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are often used in conjunction with dams to provide generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect water or for storage of water which can be evenly distributed between locations.

Reservoir

The Jhonghua Dam on the Dahan River in Taoyuan County, Taiwan.

A reservoir (etymology from French rservoir a "storehouse ) or an artificial lake is used to store water. Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such a brickwork or cast concrete.

The term reservoir may also be used to describe underground reservoirs such as an oil or water well.

Chapter- 3

Building

A building and skybridge in Munich, Germany.

In architecture, construction, engineering and real estate development the word building may refer to one of the following:

1. Any human-made structure used or intended for supporting or sheltering any use or continuous occupancy, or

2. An act of construction

Here, the first usage is generally intended unless otherwise specified.

Buildings come in a wide amount of shapes and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, to land prices, ground conditions, specific uses and aesthetic reasons.

Buildings serve several needs of society primarily as shelter from weather and as general living space, to provide privacy, to store belongings and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the outside (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful).

Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasess of artistic expression. David found in recent years, interest in sustainable planning and building practices has also become part of the design process of many new buildings.

Definitions Building is defined in many aspects as:

As a Civil Engineering structures such as a house,worship center,Factories etc. that has a foundation,wall,roof etc. that protect human being and their properties from direct harsh effect of weather like rain,wind,sun etc.

The act of constructing, erecting, or establishing. The art of constructing edifices, or the practice of civil architecture. That which is built; a fabric or edifice constructed, as a house, a church, castle,

arena/ stadium, etc. The act of constructing or building something; "during the construction we had to

take a detour"; "his hobby was the building of boats" The commercial activity involved in constructing buildings; "their main business

is home construction"; "workers in the building trades" A structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one

place; "there was a three-storey building on the corner"; "it was an imposing edifice"

The occupants of a building; "the entire building complained about the noise"

To differentiate buildings in the usage from other buildings and other structures that are not intended for continuous human occupancy, the latter are called non-building structures or simply structures.

Structural height in technical usage is the height to the highest architectural detail on building from street-level. Depending on how they are classified, spires and masts may or may not be included in this height. Spires and masts used as antennas are not generally included.

The definition of a low-rise vs. a high-rise building is a matter of debate, but generally three stories or less is considered low-rise.

History The first shelter on Earth constructed by a relatively close ancestor to humans is believed to be built 500,000 years ago by an early ancestor of humans, Homo erectus.

Types

A timber framing house in Marburg, Germany.

Residential

Residential buildings are called houses/homes, though buildings containing large numbers of separate dwelling units are often called apartment buildings / blocks to differentiate them from the more 'individual' house.

Building types may range from one-room wood-framed, masonry, or adobe dwellings to multi-million dollar high-rise buildings able to house thousands of people. Increasing settlement density in buildings (and closer distances between buildings) is usually a

response to high ground prices resulting from many people wanting to live close to work or similar attractors.

Multi-storey

Some of Denver's multi-storey buildings.

A multi-storey building is a building that has multiple floors above ground in the building.

Multi-storey buildings aim to increase the area of the building without increasing the area of the land the building is built on, hence saving land and, in most cases, money (depending on material used and land prices in the area).

Creation The practice of designing, constructing, and operating buildings is most usually a collective effort of different groups of professionals and trades. Depending on the size, complexity, and purpose of a particular building project, the project team may include:

A real estate developer who secures funding for the project; One or more financial institutions or other investors that provide the funding Local planning and code authorities A Surveyor who performs an ALTA/ACSM and construction surveys throughout

the project;

Construction managers who coordinate the effort of different groups of project participants;

Licensed architects and engineers who provide building design and prepare construction documents;

Landscape architects; Interior designers; Other consultants; Contractors who provide construction services and install building systems such

as climate control, electrical, plumbing, Decoration, fire protection, security and telecommunications;

Marketing or leasing agents; Facility managers who are responsible for operating the building.

Regardless of their size or intended use, all buildings in the US must comply with zoning ordinances, building codes and other regulations such as fire codes, life safety codes and related standards.

Vehiclessuch as trailers, caravans, ships and passenger aircraftare treated as "buildings" for life safety purposes.

Ownership and funding

Mortgage loan Real estate developer

Planning and design

Architecture Building construction Civil engineering Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design Quantity surveying Structural engineering Urban planning

Building services

Physical plant

Any building requires a certain amount of internal infrastructure to function, which includes such elements like heating / cooling, power and telecommunications, water and wastewater etc. Especially in commercial buildings (such as offices or factories), these can be extremely intricate systems taking up large amounts of space (sometimes located in separate areas or double floors / false ceilings) and constitute a big part of the regular maintenance required.

Conveying systems

Systems for transport of people within buildings:

Elevator Escalator Moving sidewalk (horizontal and inclined)

Systems for transport of people between interconnected buildings:

Skyway Underground city

Building damage

A building in Massueville, Quebec, Canada engulfed by fire.

Buildings may be damaged during the construction of the building or during maintenance. There are several other reasons behind building damage like accident. Buildings also may suffer from fire damage and flooding in special circumstances.

Chapter- 4

Infrastructure

Highway 401, the busiest highway in North America.

Infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. The term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads, water supply, sewers, power grids, telecommunications, and so forth. Viewed functionally, infrastructure facilitates the production of goods and services; for example, roads enable the transport of raw materials to a factory, and also for the distribution of finished products to markets. In some contexts, the term may also include basic social services such as schools and hospitals. In military parlance, the term refers to

the buildings and permanent installations necessary for the support, redeployment, and operation of military forces.

History of the term According to etymology online, the word infrastructure has been used in English since at least 1927 and meant: The installations that form the basis for any operation or system. Other sources, such as the Oxford English Dictionary, trace the word's origins to earlier usage, originally applied in a military sense. The word was imported from French, where it means subgrade, the native material underneath a constructed pavement or railway. The word is a combination of the Latin prefix "infra", meaning "below" and "structure". The military use of the term achieved currency in the United States after the formation of NATO in the 1940s, and was then adopted by urban planners in its modern civilian sense by 1970.

The term came to prominence in the United States in the 1980s following the publication of America in Ruins (Choate and Walter, 1981) , which initiated a public-policy discussion of the nations "infrastructure crisis", purported to be caused by decades of inadequate investment and poor maintenance of public works.

That public-policy discussion was hampered by lack of a precise definition for infrastructure. A U.S. National Research Council panel sought to clarify the situation by adopting the term "public works infrastructure", referring to:

"...both specific functional modes - highways, streets, roads, and bridges; mass transit; airports and airways; water supply and water resources; wastewater management; solid-waste treatment and disposal; electric power generation and transmission; telecommunications; and hazardous waste management - and the combined system these modal elements comprise. A comprehension of infrastructure spans not only these public works facilities, but also the operating procedures, management practices, and development policies that interact together with societal demand and the physical world to facilitate the transport of people and goods, provision of water for drinking and a variety of other uses, safe disposal of society's waste products, provision of energy where it is needed, and transmission of information within and between communities."

In Keynesian economics, the word infrastructure was exclusively used to describe public assets that facilitate production, but not private assets of the same purpose. In post-Keynesian times, however, the word has grown in popularity. It has been applied with increasing generality to suggest the internal framework discernible in any technology system or business organization.

"Hard" versus "soft" infrastructure Here, "hard" infrastructure refers to the large physical networks necessary for the functioning of a modern industrial nation, whereas "soft" infrastructure refers to all the

institutions which are required to maintain the economic, health and cultural/social standards of a country, such as the financial system, the education system, the health care system, the system of government and law enforcement, as well as emergency services.

Types of "hard" infrastructure

Chicago Transit Authority control tower 18 guides elevated Chicago 'L' north and southbound Purple and Brown lines intersecting with east and westbound Pink and Green lines and the looping Orange line above the Wells and Lake street intersection in the loop.

The following list is limited to capital assets that serve the function of conveyance or channelling of people, vehicles, fluids, energy or information, and which take the form either of a network or of a critical node used by vehicles, or used for the transmission of electro-magnetic waves. Infrastructure systems include both the fixed assets and the control systems and software required to operate, manage and monitor the systems, as well as any accessory buildings, plants or vehicles that are an essential part of the system. Also included are fleets of vehicles operating according to schedules such as public transit busses and garbage collection, as well as basic energy or communications facilities that are not usually part of a physical network (oil refineries, radio and TV broadcasting facilities).

Transportation infrastructure

Road and highway networks, including structures (bridges, tunnels, culverts, retaining walls), signage and markings, electrical systems (street lighting and traffic lights), edge treatments (curbs, sidewalks, landscaping) and specialized facilities such as road maintenance depots and rest areas

Railways, including structures, terminal facilities (rail yards, train stations), level crossings, signalizing and communications systems

Canals and navigable waterways requiring continuous maintenance (dredging, etc.)

Seaports and lighthouses Airports, including air navigational systems Mass transit systems (Commuter rail systems, subways, tramways, trolleys and

bus transportation) Bicycle paths and pedestrian walkways; Ferries.

Energy infrastructure

Electrical power network, including generation plants, electric grid, substations and local distribution;

Natural gas pipelines, storage and distribution terminals, as well as the local distribution network. Some definitions may include the gas wells, as well as the fleets of ships and trucks transporting liquified gas;

Petroleum pipelines, including associated storage and distribution terminals. Some definitions may include the oil wells, refineries, as well as the fleets of tanker ships and trucks;

Coal mines, as well as specialized facilities for washing , storing and transporting coal;

Steam or hot water production and distribution networks for district heating systems.

Electric vehicle networks for charging electric vehicles

Water management infrastructure

Drinking water supply, including the system of pipes, storage reservoirs, pumps, valves, filtration and treatment equipment and meters, including buildings and structures to house the equipment, used for the collection, treatment and distribution of drinking water

Sewage collection and disposal of waste water Drainage systems (storm sewers, ditches, etc..) Major irrigation systems (reservoirs, irrigation canals) Major flood control systems (dikes, levees, major pumping stations and

floodgates) Large-scale snow removal, including fleets of salt spreaders, snow plows,

snowblowers, dedicated dumptrucks, sidewalk plows, the dispatching and routing

systems for these fleets, as well as fixed assets such as snow dumps, snow chutes, snow melters.

Communications infrastructure

Postal service, including sorting facilities. Telephone networks (land lines) including switching systems Mobile phone networks Television and radio transmission stations, including the regulations and standards

governing broadcasting; Cable television physical networks including receiving stations and cable

distribution networks. (Does not include content providers or "networks" when used in the sense of a specialized channel such as CNN or MTV).

The Internet, including the internet backbone, core routers and server farms, local internet service providers as well as the protocols and other basic software required for the system to function. (Does not include specific websites, although may include some widely-used web-based services, such as Social network services and web search engines).

Communications satellites Undersea cables Major private, government or dedicated telecommunications networks, such as

those used for internal communication and monitoring by major infrastructure companies, by governments, by the military or by emergency services, as well as national research and education networks.

Pneumatic tube mail distribution networks

Solid waste management

Municipal garbage and recyclables collection; Solid waste landfills Solid waste incinerators and plasma gasification facilities Materials recovery facilities Hazardous waste disposal facilities;

Earth monitoring and measurement networks

Meteorological monitoring networks Tidal monitoring networks Stream Gauge or fluviometric monitoring networks Seismometer networks Earth observation satellites Geodetic benchmarks Global Positioning System Spatial Data Infrastructure

Types of "soft" infrastructure "Soft" infrastructure includes both physical assets such as highly specialized buildings and equipment, as well as non-physical "systems" such as the body of rules and regulations governing the various systems, the financing of these systems, as well as the systems and organizations by which highly skilled and specialized professionals are trained, advance in their careers by acquiring experience, and are disciplined (if required) by professional associations (professional training, accreditation and discipline).

Institutional infrastructure

The financial system, including the banking system, financial institutions, the payment system, exchanges, the money supply, financial regulations as well as accounting standards and regulations;

The system of government and law enforcement, including the political, legislative, law enforcement, justice and penal systems, as well as specialized facilities (government offices, courthouses, prisons, etc.) and specialized systems for collecting, storing and disseminating data, laws and regulation;

Emergency services, such as police, fire protection, ambulances, etc., including specialized vehicles, buildings, communications and dispatching systems.

Industrial infrastructure

Manufacturing infrastructure, including industrial parks and special economic zones, mines and processing plants for basic materials used as inputs in industry, specialized energy, transportation and water infrastructure used by industry, plus the public safety, zoning and environmental laws and regulations that govern and limit industrial activity, and standards organizations;

Agricultural, forestry and fisheries infrastructure, including specialized food and livestock transportation and storage facilities, major feedlots, agricultural price support systems (including agricultural insurance), agricultural health standards, food inspection, experimental farms and agricultural research centers and schools, the system of licencing and quota management, enforcement systems against poaching, forest wardens and fire fighting.

Social infrastructure

The health care system, including hospitals, the financing of health care, including health insurance, the systems for regulation and testing of medications and medical procedures, the system for training, inspection and professional discipline of doctors and other medical professionals, public health monitoring and regulations, as well as coordination of measures taken during public health emergencies such as epidemics;

The educational and research system, including elementary and secondary schools, universities, specialised colleges, research institutions, the systems for financing and accrediting educational institutions;

Social welfare systems, including both government support and private charity for the poor, for people in distress or victims of abuse.

Cultural, sports and recreational infrastructure

Sports and recreational infrastructure, such as parks, sports facilities, the system of sports leagues and associations;

Cultural infrastructure, such as concert halls, museums. libraries, theatres, studios, and specialized training facilities;

Business travel and tourism infrastructure, including both man-made and natural attractions, convention centers, hotels, restaurants and other services that cater mainly to tourists and business travellers, as well as the systems for informing and attracting tourists, travel insurance, etc.

Uses of the term

Engineering and construction

Engineers generally limit the use of the term infrastructure to describe fixed assets that are in the form of a large network, in other words, "hard" infrastructure. Recent efforts to devise more generic definitions of infrastructure have typically referred to the network aspects of most of the structures and to the accumulated value of investments in the networks as assets. One such effort defines infrastructure as the network of assets "where the system as a whole is intended to be maintained indefinitely at a specified standard of service by the continuing replacement and refurbishment of its components."

Civil defense and economic development

Civil defense planners and developmental economists generally refer to both "hard" and "soft" infrastructure, including public services such as schools and hospitals, emergency services such as police and fire fighting, and basic financial services.

Military

Military strategists use the term infrastructure to refer to all building and permanent installations necessary for the support of military forces, whether they are stationed in bases, being deployed or engaged in operations, such as barracks, headquarters, airfields, communications facilities, stores of military equipment, port installations, and maintenance stations.

Critical infrastructure

The term critical infrastructure has been widely adopted to distinguish those infrastructure elements (both hard and soft) that, if significantly damaged or destroyed, would cause serious disruption of the dependent system or organization. Storm, flood, or earthquake damage leading to loss of certain transportation routes in a city (for example, bridges crossing a river), could make it impossible for people to evacuate and for emergency services to operate; these routes would be deemed critical infrastructure. Similarly, an on-line booking system might be critical infrastructure for an airline.

Urban infrastructure

Urban or municipal infrastructure refers to "hard" infrastructure systems generally owned and operated by municipalities, such as streets, water distribution, sewers, etc. It may also include some of the facilities associated with "soft" infrastructure, such as parks, public pools and libraries.

Green infrastructure

Green Infrastructure is a concept that highlights the importance of the natural environment in decisions about land use planning. In particular there is an emphasis on the "life support" functions provided by a network of natural ecosystems, with an emphasis on interconnectivity to support long-term sustainability. Examples include clean water and healthy soils, as well as the more anthropocentric functions such as recreation and providing shade and shelter in and around towns and cities. The concept can be extended to apply to the management of stormwater runoff at the local level through the use of natural systems, or engineered systems that mimic natural systems, to treat polluted runoff.

Marxism

In Marxism, the term "infrastructure" is sometimes used as a synonym for base in the dialectic synthetic pair base and superstructure. However the Marxist notion of base is broader than the non-Marxist use of the term "infrastructure", and some "soft" infrastructure, such as laws, governance, regulations and standards, would be considered by Marxists to be part of the "superstructure", not the "base".

Other uses

In other applications, the term infrastructure may refer to information technology, informal and formal channels of communication, software development tools, political and social networks, or beliefs held by members of particular groups. Still underlying these more conceptual uses is the idea that infrastructure provides organizing structure and support for the system or organization it serves, whether it is a city, a nation, a corporation, or a collection of people with common interests. Examples: IT infrastructure, research infrastructure, terrorist infrastructure, tourism infrastructure.

Related concepts The term infrastructure is often confused with the following overlapping or related concepts:

Land improvement and land development

The terms land improvement and land development are general terms that in some contexts may include infrastructure, but in the context of a discussion of infrastructure would refer only to smaller scale systems or works that are not included in infrastructure because they are typically limited to a single parcel of land, and are owned and operated by the land owner. For example, an irrigation canal that serves a region or district would be included with infrastructure, but the private irrigation systems on individual land parcels would be considered land improvements, not infrastructure. Service connections to municipal service and public utility networks would also be considered land improvements, not infrastructure.

Public works and public services

The term public works includes government owned and operated infrastructure as well as public buildings such as schools and court houses. The term public works generally refers to physical assets needed to deliver public services.

Public services include both infrastructure and services generally provided by government.

Typical attributes "Hard" infrastructure generally has the following attributes:

Capital assets that provide services

They are physical assets that provide services; The people employed in the "hard" infrastructure sector generally maintain,

monitor and operate the assets, but do not offer services to the clients or users of the infrastructure. Interactions between workers and clients are generally limited to administrative tasks concerning ordering, scheduling or billing of services.

Large networks

They are large networks constructed over generations, and are not often replaced as a whole system.

The network provides services to a geographically defined area. The system or network has a long life because its service capacity is maintained

by continual refurbishment or replacement of components as they wear out.

Historicity and interdependence

The system or network tends to evolve over time as it is continuously modified, improved, enlarged, and as various components are re-built, decommissioned or adapted to other uses.

The system components are interdependent and not usually capable of subdivision or separate disposal, and consequently are not readily disposable within the commercial marketplace.

The system interdependency may limit a component life to a lesser period than the expected life of the component itself.

Natural monopoly

The systems tend to be natural monopolies, insofar that economies of scale means that multiple agencies providing a service are less efficient than would be the case if a single agency provided the service.

The assets have a high initial cost and a value that is difficult to determine. Once most of the system is built, the marginal cost of servicing additional clients

or users tends to be relatively inexpensive, and may be negligible if there is no need to increase the peak capacity or the geographical extent of the network.

Economics, management, engineering and impacts The following concerns mainly "hard" infrastructure and the specialized facilities used for "soft" infrastructure.

Ownership and financing

Infrastructure may be owned and managed by governments or by private companies, such as public utility or railway companies. Generally, most roads, major ports and airports, water distribution systems and sewage networks are publicly owned, whereas most energy and telecommunications networks are privately owned. Publicly owned infrastructure may be paid for from taxes, tolls or metered user fees, whereas private infrastructure is generally paid for by metered user fees. Major investment projects are generally financed by the issuance of long-term bonds.

Note that government owned and operated infrastructure may be developed and operated in the private sector or in public-private partnership in addition to in the public sector.

In the United States, public spending on infrastructure has varied between 2.3% and 3.6% of GDP since 1950.

Many financial institutions invest in infrastructure.

National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007

In 2007, Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Senator Charles Hagel of Nebraska introduced the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007. This bill would provide for a national fund to help pay for large infrastructure projects in the United States.

Planning and management

The method of 'Infrastructure Asset Management' is based upon the definition of a Standard of Service (SoS) that describes how an asset will perform in objective and measurable terms. The SoS includes the definition of a minimum condition grade, which is established by considering the consequences of a failure of the infrastructure asset.

The key components of 'Infrastructure Asset Management' are:

Definition of a Standard of Service o Establishment of measurable specifications of how the asset should

perform o Establishment of a minimum condition grade

Establishment of a whole-life cost approach to managing the asset Elaboration of an Asset Management Plan

The 2009 report card produced by the American Society of Civil Engineers gives America's Infrastructure a grade of "D".

Engineering

Most infrastructure is designed by engineers, urbanists or architects. Generally road and rail transport networks, as well as water and waste management infrastructure are designed by civil engineers; electrical power and lighting networks are designed by power engineers and electrical engineers; and telecommunications, computing and monitoring networks are designed by systems engineers. In the case of urban infrastructure, the general layout of roads, sidewalks and public places may sometimes be designed by urbanists or architects, although the detailed design will still be performed by civil engineers. If a building is required, it is designed by an architect, and if an industrial or processing plant is required, it may be designed by industrial engineer or a process engineer.

In terms of engineering tasks, the design and construction management process usually follows these steps:

Preliminary Studies: o Determine existing and future traffic loads, determine existing capacity,

and estimate the existing and future standards of service; o Conduct a preliminary survey and obtain information from existing air

photos, maps, plans, etc. o Identify possible conflicts with other assets or topographical features;

o Perform environmental impact studies: Evaluate the impact on the human environment ( Noise pollution,

odors, electromagnetic interference, etc. ..); Evaluate the impact on the natural environment (disturbance of

natural ecosystems); Evaluate possible presence of contaminated soils;

o Given various time horizons, standards of service, environmental impacts and conflicts with existing structures or terrain, propose various preliminary designs;

o Estimate the costs of the various designs, and make recommendations; Detailed Survey:

o Perform a detailed survey of the construction site; o Obtain As Built drawings of existing infrastructure; o Dig exploratory pits where required to survey underground infrastructure; o Perform a geotechnical survey to determine the bearing capacity of soils

and rock; o Perform soil sampling and testing to estimate nature, degree and extent of

soil contamination; Detailed Engineering:

o Prepare detailed plans and technical specifications; o Prepare a detailed bill of materials; o Prepare a detailed cost estimate; o Establish a general work schedule;

Authorization: o Obtain authorization from environmental and other regulatory agencies; o Obtain authorization from any owners or operators of assets affected by

the work; o Inform emergency services, and prepare contingency plans in case of

emergencies; Tendering:

o Prepare administrative clauses and other tendering documents; o Organize and announce a Call for Tenders; o Answer contractor questions and issue addenda during the tendering

process; o Receive and analyse tenders, and make a recommendation to the owner;

Construction Supervision: o Once the construction contract has been signed between the owner and the

general contractor, once all authorisations have been obtained, and once all pre-construction submittals have been received from the general contractor, the construction supervisor issues an Order to Begin Construction;

o Regularly schedule meetings and obtain contact information for the general contractor (GC) and all interested parties;

o Obtain a detailed work schedule and list of subcontractors from the GC. o Obtain detailed traffic diversion and emergency plans from the GC; o Obtain proof of certification, insurance and bonds;

o Examine shop drawings submitted by the GC; o Receive reports from the materials quality control lab; o When required, review Change request s from the GC, and issue

Construction Directives and Change Orders; o Follow work progress and authorize partial payments; o When substantially completed, inspect the work and prepare a list of

deficiencies; o Supervise testing and commissioning; o Verify that all operating and maintenance manuals, as well as warranties,

are complete; o Prepare "As Built" drawings; o Make a final inspection, issue a certificate of final completion and

authorize the final payment.

Impact on economic development

Investment in infrastructure is part of the capital accumulation required for economic development.

Use as economic stimulus

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, many governments undertook public works projects in order to create jobs and stimulate the economy. The economist John Maynard Keynes provided a theoretical justification for this policy in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, published in 1936. Following the global financial crisis of 20082009, some are again proposing investing in infrastructure as a means of stimulating the economy

Chapter- 5

Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups. Several walls have been built since the 5th century BC that are referred to collectively as the Great Wall, which has been rebuilt and maintained from the 5th century BC through the 16th century. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of that wall remains; the majority of the existing wall was built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The most comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has recently concluded that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km (5,500.3 mi). This is made up of 6,259.6 km (3,889.5 mi) sections of actual wall, 359.7 km (223.5 mi) of trenches and 2,232.5 km (1,387.2 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.

History

Great Wall of the Qin Dynasty

Great Wall of the Han Dynasty

The Chinese were already familiar with the techniques of wall-building by the time of the Spring and Autumn Period, which began around the 8th century BC. During the Warring States Period from the 5th century BC to 221 BC, the states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan and Zhongshan all constructed extensive fortifications to defend their own borders. Built to withstand the attack of small arms such as swords and spears, these walls were made mostly by stamping earth and gravel between board frames.

Qin Shi Huang conquered all opposing states and unified China in 221 BC, establishing the Qin Dynasty. Intending to impose centralized rule and prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, he ordered the destruction of the wall sections that divided his empire along the former state borders. To protect the empire against intrusions by the Xiongnu people from the north, he ordered the building of a new wall to connect the remaining fortifications along the empire's new northern frontier. Transporting the large quantity of materials required for construction was difficult, so builders always tried to use local resources. Stones from the mountains were used over mountain ranges, while rammed earth was used for construction in the plains. There are no surviving historical records indicating the exact length and course of the Qin Dynasty walls. Most of the ancient walls have eroded away over the centuries, and very few sections remain today. Later, the Han, Sui, Northern and Jin dynasties all repaired, rebuilt, or expanded sections of the Great Wall at great cost to defend themselves against northern invaders. It is estimated that over 1 million workers died building the wall.

Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty

Map of all the wall constructions

The Great Wall concept was revived again during the Ming Dynasty, following the Ming army's defeat by the Oirats in the Battle of Tumu in 1449. The Ming had failed to gain a clear upper-hand over the Manchurian and Mongolian tribes after successive battles, and the long-drawn conflict was taking a toll on the empire. The Ming adopted a new strategy to keep the nomadic tribes out by constructing walls along the northern border of China. Acknowledging the Mongol control established in the Ordos Desert, the wall followed the desert's southern edge instead of incorporating the bend of the Huang He.

Photograph of the Great Wall in 1907

Unlike the earlier Qin fortifications, the Ming construction was stronger and more elaborate due to the use of bricks and stone instead of rammed earth. As Mongol raids continued periodically over the years, the Ming devoted considerable resources to repair and reinforce the walls. Sections near the Ming capital of Beijing were especially strong.

During the 1440s1460s, the Ming also built a so-called "Liaodong Wall". Similar in function to the Great Wall (whose extension, in a sense, it was), but more basic in construction, the Liaodong Wall enclosed the agricultural heartland of the Liaodong province, protecting it against potential incursions by Jurched-Mongol Oriyanghan from the northwest and the Jianzhou Jurchens from the north. While stones and tiles were used

in some parts of the Liaodong Wall, most of it was in fact simply an earth dike with moats on both sides.

Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Great Wall helped defend the empire against the Manchu invasions that began around 1600. Under the military command of Yuan Chonghuan, the Ming army held off the Manchus at the heavily fortified Shanhaiguan pass, preventing the Manchus from entering the Chinese heartland. The Manchus were finally able to cross the Great Wall in 1644, when the gates at Shanhaiguan were opened by Wu Sangui, a Ming border general who disliked the activities of rulers of the Shun Dynasty. The Manchus quickly seized Beijing, and defeated the newly founded Shun Dynasty and remaining Ming resistance, to establish the Qing Dynasty.

In 2009, an additional 290 km (180 mi) of previously undetected portions of the wall, built during the Ming Dynasty, were discovered. The newly discovered sections range from the Hushan mountains in the northern Liaoning province, to Jiayuguan in western Gansu province. The sections had been submerged over time by sandstorms which moved across the arid region.

Under Qing rule, China's borders extended beyond the walls and Mongolia was annexed into the empire, so construction and repairs on the Great Wall were discontinued.

Notable areas

An area of the sections of the Great Wall at Jinshanling

The Great Wall

Some of the following sections are in Beijing municipality, which were renovated and which are regularly visited by modern tourists today.

"North Pass" of Juyongguan pass, known as the Badaling. When used by the Chinese to protect their land, this section of the wall has had many guards to defend Chinas capital Beijing. Made of stone and bricks from the hills, this portion of the Great Wall is 7.8 meters (25.6 ft) high and 5 meters (16.4 ft) wide.

"West Pass" of Jiayuguan (pass). This fort is near the western edges of the Great Wall.

"Pass" of Shanhaiguan. This fort is near the eastern edges of the Great Wall. One of the most striking sections of the Ming Great Wall is where it climbs

extremely steep slopes. It runs 11 kilometers (7 mi) long, ranges from 5 to 8 meters (1626 ft) in height, and 6 meters (19.7 ft) across the bottom, narrowing up to 5 meters (16.4 ft) across the top. Wangjinglou is one of Jinshanling's 67 watchtowers, 980 meters (3,215 ft) above sea level.

South East of Jinshanling, is the Mutianyu Great Wall which winds along lofty, cragged mountains from the southeast to the northwest for approximately 2.25 kilometers (about 1.3 miles). It is connected with Juyongguan Pass to the west and Gubeikou to the east.

25 km (16 mi) west of the Liao Tian Ling stands apart of Great Wall which is only 2~3 stories high. According to the records of Lin Tian, the wall was not only extremely short compared to others, but it appears to be silver. Archeologists explain that the wall appears to be silver because the stone they used were from Shan Xi, where many mines are found. The stone contains extremely high levels of metal in it causing it to appear silver. However, due to years of decay of the Great Wall, it is hard to see the silver part of the wall today.

Another notable section lies near the eastern extremity of the wall, where the first pass of the Great Wall was built on the Shanhaiguan (known as the Number One Pass Under Heaven). 3 km north of Shanhaiguan is Jiaoshan Great Wall, the site of the first mountain of the Great Wall. 15 km northeast from Shanhaiguan, is the Jiumenkou, which is the only portion of the wall that was built as a bridge.

Characteristics

The Great Wall on an 1805 map

Before the use of bricks, the Great Wall was mainly built from rammed earth, stones, and wood. During the Ming Dynasty, however, bricks were heavily used in many areas of the wall, as were materials such as tiles, lime, and stone. The size and weight of the bricks made them easier to work with than earth and stone, so construction quickened. Additionally, bricks could bear more weight and endure better than rammed earth. Stone can hold under its own weight better than brick, but is more difficult to use. Consequently, stones cut in rectangular shapes were used for the foundation, inner and outer brims, and gateways of the wall. Battlements line the uppermost portion of the vast majority of the wall, with defensive gaps a little over 30 cm (12 in) tall, and about 23 cm (9.1 in) wide.

Condition

The Great Wall at Mutianyu, near Beijing

While some portions north of Beijing and near tourist centers have been preserved and even extensively renovated, in many locations the Wall is in disrepair. Those parts might serve as a village playground or a source of stones to rebuild houses and roads. Sections of the Wall are also prone to graffiti and vandalism. Parts have been destroyed because the Wall is in the way of construction.

More than 60 km (37 mi) of the wall in Gansu province may disappear in the next 20 years, due to erosion from sandstorms. In places, the height of the wall has been reduced from more than five meters (16.4 ft) to less than two meters. The square lookout towers that characterize the most famous images of the wall have disappeared completely. Many western sections of the wall are constructed from mud, rather than brick and stone, and thus are more susceptible to erosion.

Watchtowers and barracks Communication between the army units along the length of the Great Wall, including the ability to call reinforcements and warn garrisons of enemy movements, was of high importance. Signal towers were built upon hill tops or other high points along the wall for their visibility.

Visibility from space

Visibility from the moon

One of the earliest known references to this myth appears in a letter written in 1754 by the English antiquary William Stukeley. Stukeley wrote that, "This mighty wall of four score miles in length (Hadrian's Wall) is only exceeded by the Chinese Wall, which makes a considerable figure upon the terrestrial globe, and may be discerned at the moon." The claim was also mentioned by Henry Norman in 1895 where he states "besides its age it enjoys the reputation of being the only work of human hands on the globe visible from the moon." The issue of "canals" on Mars was prominent in the late 19th century and may have led to the belief that long, thin objects were visible from space. The claim that the wall is visible also appears in a 1932 Ripley's Believe it or Not cartoon and in Richard Halliburton's 1938 book Second Book of Marvels.

The claim the Great Wall is visible has been debunked many times, but is still ingrained in popular culture. The wall is a maximum 9.1 m (30 ft) wide, and is about the same color as the soil surrounding it. Based on the optics of resolving power (distance versus the width of the iris: a few millimeters for the human eye, meters for large telescopes) only an object of reasonable contrast to its surroundings which is 70 mi (110 km) or more in diameter (1 arc-minute) would be visible to the unaided eye from the moon, whose average distance from Earth is 384,393 km (238,851 mi). The apparent width of the Great Wall from the moon is the same as that of a human hair viewed from 2 miles away. To see the wall from the moon would require spatial resolution 17,000 times better than normal (20/20) vision. Unsurprisingly, no lunar astronaut has ever claimed to have seen the Great Wall from the moon.

Visibility from low earth orbit

A more controversial question is whether the Wall is visible from low earth orbit (an altitude of as little as 100 miles (160 km)). NASA claims that it is barely visible, and only under nearly perfect conditions; it is no more conspicuous than many other man-made objects. Other authors have argued that due to limitations of the optics of the eye and the spacing of photoreceptors on the retina, it is impossible to see the wall with the naked eye, even from low orbit, and would require visual acuity of 20/3 (7.7 times better than normal).

Anecdotal reports

Astronaut William Pogue thought he had seen it from Skylab but discovered he was actually looking at the Grand Canal of China near Beijing. He spotted the Great Wall with binoculars, but said that "it wasn't visible to the unaided eye." U.S. Senator Jake Garn claimed to be able to see the Great Wall with the naked eye from a space shuttle orbit in the early 1980s, but his claim has been disputed by several U.S. astronauts. Veteran U.S. astronaut Gene Cernan has stated: "At Earth orbit of 100 miles (160 km) to 200 miles (320 km) high, the Great Wall of China is, indeed, visible to the naked eye." Ed Lu, Expedition 7 Science Officer aboard the International Space Station, adds that, "it's less visible than a lot of other objects. And you have to know where to look."

In 2001, Neil Armstrong stated about the view from Apollo 11: "I do not believe that, at least with my eyes, there would be any man-made object that I could see. I have not yet found somebody who has told me they've seen the Wall of China from Earth orbit. ...I've asked various people, particularly Shuttle guys, that have been many orbits around China in the daytime, and the ones I've talked to didn't see it."

Topographic maps put together showing the location of the eastern parts of the wall between the Yellow River and the Bohai Sea.

In October 2003, Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei stated that he had not been able to see the Great Wall of China. In response, the European Space Agency (ESA) issued a press release reporting that from an orbit between 160 and 320 km, the Great Wall is visible to the naked eye. In an attempt to further clarify things, the ESA published a picture of a part of the Great Wall photographed from Space. However, in a press release a week later (no longer available in the ESAs website), they acknowledged that the "Great Wall" in the picture was actually a river.

Leroy Chiao, a Chinese-American astronaut, took a photograph from the International Space Station that shows the wall. It was so indistinct that the photographer was not certain he had actually captured it. Based on the photograph, the China Daily later reported that the Great Wall can be seen from space with the naked eye, under favorable viewing conditions, if one knows exactly where to look. However, the resolution of a camera can be much higher than the human visual system, and the optics much better, rendering photographic evidence irrelevant to the issue of whether it is visible to the naked eye.

Chapter- 6

Suez Canal

The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa. The northern terminus is Port Said and the southern terminus is Port Tawfik at the city of Suez. Ismailia lies on its west bank, 3 km (1.9 mi) north of the half-way point.

When first built, the canal was 164 km (102 mi) long and 8 m (26 ft) deep. After multiple enlargements, the canal is 193.30 km (120.11 mi) long, 24 m (79 ft) deep, and 205 metres (673 ft) wide as of 2010. It consists of the northern access channel of 22 km/14 mi, the canal itself of 162.25 km/100.82 mi and of the southern access channel of 9 km/5.6 mi.

It is single-lane with passing places in Ballah By-Pass and in the Great Bitter Lake. It contains no locks; seawater flows freely through the canal. In general, the Canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. The current south of the lakes changes with the tide at Suez.

The canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) of the Arab Republic of Egypt. Under international treaty, it may be used "in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag."

History of Suez Canal Ancient west-east canals have facilitated travel from the Nile to the Red Sea. One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of either Senusret II or Ramesses II. Another canal probably incorporating a portion of the first was constructed under the reign of Necho II and completed by Darius.

2nd millennium BC

The legendary Sesostris (likely either Pharaoh Senusret II or Senusret III of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt ) is suggested to have perhaps started work on an ancient canal joining the River Nile with the Red Sea (1897 BC1839 BC). (It is said that in ancient times the Red Sea reached northward to the Bitter Lakes and Lake Timsah. )

In his Meteorology, Aristotle wrote:

One of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it.

Strabo also wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and Pliny the Elder wrote:

165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, on the Red Sea, the harbour of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.

French cartographers discovered the remnants of an ancient north-south canal running past the east side of Lake Timsah and ending near the north end of the Great Bitter Lake in the second half of the 19th century. (This ancient, second, canal may have followed a course along the shoreline of the Red Sea when the Red Sea once extended north to Lake Timsah. ) In the 20th century the northward extension of this ancient canal was discovered, extending from Lake Timsah to the Ballah Lakes, which was subsequently dated to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt by extrapolating the dates of ancient sites erected along its course. However it remains unknown whether or not this is the same as Sesostris' ancient canal and whether it was used as a waterway or as a defence against the east.

The reliefs of the Punt expedition under Hatshepsut 1470 BC depict seagoing vessels carrying the expeditionary force returning from Punt. This has given rise to the suggestion that, at the time, a navigable link existed between the Red Sea and the Nile. Evidence seems to indicate its existence by the 13th century BC during the time of Ramesses II.

Canals dug by Necho, Darius I and Ptolemy

Remnants of an ancient west-east canal, running through the ancient Egyptian cities of Bubastis, Pi-Ramesses, and Pithom were discovered by Napoleon Bonaparte and his cadre of engineers and cartographers in 1799.

According to the Histories of the Greek historian Herodotus, about 600 BC, Necho II undertook to dig a west-east canal through the Wadi Tumilat between Bubastis and

Heroopolis, and perhaps continued it to the Heroopolite Gulf and the Red Sea. Regardless, Necho is reported as having never completed his project.

Herodotus was told that 120,000 men perished in this undertaking, but this figure is doubtlessly exaggerated. According to Pliny the Elder, Necho's extension to the canal was approximately 57 English miles, equal to the total distance between Bubastis and the Great Bitter Lake, allowing for winding through valleys that it had to pass through. The length that Herodotus tells us, of over 1000 stadia (i.e., over 114 miles), must be understood to include the entire distance between the Nile and the Red Sea at that time.

With Necho's death, work was discontinued. Herodotus tells us that the reason the project was abandoned was because of a warning received from an oracle that others would benefit by its successful completion. In fact, Necho's war with Nebuchadrezzar II most probably prevented the canal to be continued.

Necho's project was finally completed by Darius I of Persia, who conquered Egypt. We are told that by Darius's time a natural waterway passage which had existed between the Heroopolite Gulf and the Red Sea in the vicinity of the Egyptian town of Shaluf (alt. Chalouf or Shaloof ), located just south of the Great Bitter Lake, had become so blocked with silt that Darius needed to clear it out so as to allow navigation once again. According to Herodotus, Darius's canal was wide enough that two triremes could pass each other with oars extended, and required four days to traverse. Darius commemorated his achievement with a number of granite stelae that he set up on the Nile bank, including one near Kabret, and a further one a few miles north of Suez. The Darius Inscriptions read:

Saith King Darius: I am a Persian. Setting out from Persia, I conquered Egypt. I ordered this canal dug from the river called the Nile that flows in Egypt, to the sea that begins in Persia. When the canal had been dug as I ordered, ships went from Egypt through this canal to Persia, even as I intended.

The canal left the Nile at Bubastis. An inscription on a pillar at Pithom records that in 270 or 269 BC it was again reopened, by Ptolemy II Philadelphus. In Arsinoe, Ptolemy constructed a navigable lock, with sluices, at the Heroopolite Gulf of the Red Sea which allowed the passage of vessels but prevented salt water from the Red Sea from mingling with the fresh water in the canal.

Receding Red Sea and the dwindling Nile

The Red Sea is believed by some historians to have gradually receded over the centuries, its coastline slowly moving farther and farther southward away from Lake Timsah and the Great Bitter Lake to its present coastline today. Coupled with persistent accumulations of Nile silt, maintenance and repair of Ptolemy's canal became increasingly cumbersome over each passing century.

Two hundred years after the construction of Ptolemy's canal, Cleopatra seems to have had no west-east waterway passage, because the Pelusiac branch of the Nile River, which had fed Ptolemy's west-east canal, had by that time dwindled, being choked with silt.

Topographic map, northern Gulf of Suez, route to Cairo, 1856.

Old Cairo to the Red Sea

By the 8th century, a navigable canal existed between Old Cairo and the Red Sea, but accounts vary as to who ordered its constructioneither Trajan or 'Amr ibn al-'As, or

Omar the Great. This canal reportedly linked to the River Nile at Old Cairo and ended near modern Suez. A geography treatise by Dicuil reports a conversation with an English monk, Fidelis, who had sailed on the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the first half of the 8th century

The Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur is said to have ordered this canal closed in 767 to prevent supplies from reaching Arabian detractors.

Repair by Triqu l-kim Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah is claimed to have repaired the Old Cairo to Red Sea passageway, but only briefly, circa 1000 AD, as it soon "became choked with sand." However, we are told that parts of this canal still continued to fill in during the Nile's annual inundations.

Napoleon discovers an ancient canal

Napoleon Bonaparte's interest in finding the remnants of an ancient waterway passage culminated in a cadre of archaeologists, scientists, cartographers and engineers scouring the area beginning in the latter months of 1798. Their findings, recorded in the Description de l'gypte, include detailed maps that depict the discovery of an ancient canal extending northward from the Red Sea and then westward toward the Nile.

The Suez Canal at Ismailia, c. 1860. The Ismailia segment was completed in November 1862.

Napoleon had contemplated the construction of another, modern, north-south canal to join the Mediterranean and Red Sea. But his project was abandoned after the preliminary survey erroneously concluded that the Red Sea was 10 metres (33 ft) higher than the Mediterranean, making a locks-based canal too expensive and very long to construct. The Napoleonic survey commission's error came from fragmented readings mostly done during wartime, which resulted in imprecise calculations.

1881 drawing of the Suez Canal.

Though by this time unnavigable, the ancient route from Bubastis to the Red Sea still channeled water in spots as late as 1861 and as far east as Kassassin.

Interim Period

Although the difference in the sea levels (which could be problematic for a canal's construction there) had been noted for some time, the idea of finding a shorter route to the east remained alive. In 1830, F. R. Chesney submitted a report to the British government, which stated that there was no difference in altitude, and that the Suez Canal was feasible, but his report received no further attention. Lieutenant Waghorn established his Overland Route, which transported post and passengers to India via Egypt. Linant de Bellefonds, a French explorer of Egypt, became chief engineer of Egypt's Public Works. In addition to his normal duties, he surveyed the Isthmus of Suez and made plans for the Suez Canal. French Saint-Simonianists showed an interest in the canal and in 1833, Barthlemy Prosper Enfantin tried to draw Muhammad Ali's attention to the canal but was unsuccessful. Alois Negrelli, the Austrian railroad pioneer, became interested in the idea in 1836. In 1846, Prosper Enfantin's Socit d'tudes du Canal de Suez invited a number of experts, among them Robert Stephenson, Negrelli and Paul-Adrien Bourdaloue to study the feasibility of the Suez Canal (with the assistance of Linant de Bellefonds). Bourdaloue's survey of the isthmus was the first generally accepted evidence that there was no practical difference in altitude between the two seas. Britain, however, feared that a canal open to everyone might interfere with its India trade and, therefore, preferred a connection by train from Alexandria via Cairo to Suez, which eventually was built by Stephenson.

Construction by Suez Canal Company

In 1854 and 1856 Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained a concession from Sa'id Pasha, the viceroy of Egypt, to create a company to construct a canal open to ships of all nations. The company was to operate the canal for 99 years from its opening. De Lesseps had used his friendly relationship with Sa'id, which he had developed while he was a French diplomat during the 1830s. As stipulated in the concessions, Lesseps convened the International Commission for the piercing of the isthmus of Suez (Commission Internationale pour le percement de l'isthme des Suez) consisting of thirteen experts from seven countries, among them McClean, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London, and again Negrelli, to examine the plans of Linant de Bellefonds and to advise on the feasibility of and on the best route for the canal. After surveys and analyses in Egypt and discussions in Paris on various aspects of the canal, where many of Negrelli's ideas prevailed, the commission produced a final unanimous report in December 1856 containing a detailed description of the canal complete with plans and profiles. The Suez Canal Company (Compagnie Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez) came into being on 15 December 1858 and work started on the shore of the future Port Said on 25 April 1859.

The excavation took some 10 years using forced labour (Corve) of Egyptian workers during a certain period. Some sources estimate that over 30,000 people were working on the canal at any given period, that altogether more than 1.5 million people from various countries were employed, and that thousands of laborers died on the project.

The British government had opposed the project of the canal from the outset to its completion. As one of the diplomatic moves against the canal, it disapproved the use of

slave labor on the canal (slaves had been banned throughout Europe by 1830). The British Empire was the major global naval force and officially condemned the forced work and sent armed bedouins to start a revolt among workers. Involuntary labour on the project ceased, and the viceroy condemned the Corve, halting the project.

Angered by the British opportunism, de Lesseps sent a letter to the British government remarking on the British lack of remorse a few years earlier when forced workers died in similar conditions building the British railway in Egypt.

Initially international opinion was skeptical and Suez Canal Company shares did not sell well overseas. Britain, the United States, Austria and Russia did not buy any significant number of shares. All French shares were quickly sold in France. A contemporary British sceptic claimed:

One thing is sure... our local merchant community doesn't pay practical attention at all to this grand work, and it is legitimate to doubt that the canal's receipts... could ever be sufficient to recover its maintenance fee. It will never become a large ships accessible way in any case. (reported by German historian Uwe A. Oster)

One of the first traverses in the 19th century.

Suez Canal in February 1934. Air photograph taken by Swiss pilot and photographer Walter Mittelholzer.

The canal opened to shipping on 17 November 1869. Although numerous technical, political, and financial problems had been overcome, the final cost was more than double the original estimate. The opening was performed by French Empress Eugenie and the Khedive Ismail of Egypt in the Imperial yacht Aigle, piloted by Napolean Coste who was bestowed by the Khedive, the Order of the Medjidie (Blue Flame of Service c1955). The first ship to follow the yacht Aigle through the canal was the British P&O liner Delta.

After the opening of the canal, the Suez Canal Company was in financial difficulties. The remaining works were completed only in 1871, and traffic was below expectations in the first two years. Lesseps therefore tried to increase revenues by interpreting the kind of net ton referred to in the second concession (tonneau de capacit) as meaning a ship's real

freight capacity and not only the theoretical net tonnage of the Moorsom System introduced in Britain by the Merchant Shipping Act in 1854. The ensuing commercial and diplomatic activities resulted in the International Commission of Constantinople establishing a specific kind of net tonnage and settling the question of tariffs in their protocol of 18 December 1873. This was the origin of the Suez Canal Net Tonnage and the Suez Canal Special Tonnage Certificate still used today.

The canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade. Combined with the American transcontinental railroad completed six months earlier, it allowed the entire world to be circled in record time. It played an important role in increasing European colonisation of Africa. External debts forced Said Pasha's successor, Isma'il Pasha, to sell his country's share in the canal for 4,000,000 to the United Kingdom in 1875, but French shareholders still held the majority. Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was accused by William Ewart Gladstone of undermining Britain's constitutional system, due to his lack of reference or consent from Parliament when purchasing the shares with funding from the Rothschilds.

The Convention of Constantinople in 1888 declared the canal a neutral zone under the protection of the British; British troops had moved in to protect it during a civil war in Egypt in 1882. They were later to defend the strategically important passage against a major Ottoman attack in 1915. Under the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the United Kingdom insisted on retaining control over the canal. In 1951 Egypt repudiated the treaty, and in 1954 the UK agreed to remove its troops, and withdrawal was completed in July 1956.

Suez Crisis

After the United Kingdom and the United States withdrew their pledge to support the construction of the Aswan Dam due to Egyptian overtures towards the Soviet Union, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the canal in 1956 and transferred it to the Suez Canal Authority, intending to finance the dam project using revenue from the canal. This led up to the Suez Crisis, in which the UK, France and Israel invaded Egypt. The intention was for Israel to invade on the ground, and for the Anglo-French partnership to give air and other support, later to intervene to resolve the crisis and control the canal.

To save the British from what he thought was a disastrous action, and to stop the war from a possible escalation, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, Lester B. Pearson, proposed the creation of the very first United Nations peacekeeping force to ensure access to the canal for all and an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai. On 4 November 1956, a majority of nations at the United Nations voted for Pearson's peacekeeping resolution, which mandated the UN peacekeepers to stay in the Sinai Peninsula unless both Egypt and Israel agreed to their withdrawal. The United States backed this proposal by putting pressure on the British government by selling Pounds, which would cause it to depreciate. Britain then agreed to withdraw its troops. Pearson was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As a result of damage and ships intentionally

sunk under orders from Nasser the canal was closed until April 1957, when it was cleared with UN assistance. A UN force (UNEF) was established to maintain the neutrality of the canal and the Sinai Peninsula.

Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973

In May 1967 President Nasser ordered the UN peacekeeping forces out of the Sinai Peninsula, including the Suez Canal area. Despite Israeli objections in the United Nations, the peacekeepers were withdrawn and the Egyptian army took up positions on the Israeli border, closing the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The canal itself had been closed to Israeli shipping since 1949, except for a short period in 1951-1952.

After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, also called the Six Day War, the canal was closed by an Egyptian blockade until 5 June 1975. As a result, fourteen cargo ships known as "The Yellow Fleet" remained trapped in the canal for over eight years. In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the canal was the scene of a major crossing by the Egyptian army into Israeli-occupied Sinai, and in the later stage of the war, a crossing by the Israeli army into mainland Egypt. Much wreckage from this conflict remains visible along the canal's edges.

A US Navy RH-53D sweeping the Suez Canal in 1974.

In reaction to the Yom Kippur War the United States initiated Operation Nimbus Moon. The helicopter carrier USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) was sent to the Canal, carrying twelve RH-53D minesweeping helicopters of HM-12. These partly cleared the Suez Canal between May and December 1974.She was relieved by the LST USS Barnstable County (LST1197). The British Royal Navy initiated ( Operation Rheostat) and Task Group 65.2 provided the RN Minehunters, HMS Maxton, HMS Bossington & HMS Wilton and HMS Abdiel a Practice Minelayer / MCMV Support Ship which spent two periods of 6 months in 1974 and in 1975 based at Ismailia. When the Canal Clearance Operations were completed, the Suez Canal and its lakes were considered 99% clear of mines.The Canal was then reopened by President Sadat aboard an Egyptian Destroyer which led the first convoy Northbound to Port Said in 1975 .

The UNEF mandate expired in 1979. Despite the efforts of the United States, Israel, Egypt, and others to obtain an extension of the UN role in observing the peace between Israel and Egypt, as called for under the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty of 1979, the mandate could not be extended because of the veto by the USSR in the security council, at the request of Syria. Accordingly, negotiations for a new observer force in the Sinai produced the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), stationed in Sinai in 1981 in coordination with a phased Israeli withdrawal. It is there under agreements between the United States, Israel, Egypt, and other nations.

Capacity

Ships moored at El Ballah during transit

The canal allows passage of ships up to 20 m (66 ft) draft or 240,000 deadweight tons and up to a maximum height of 68 m (223 ft) above water level and a maximum beam of 77.5 m (254 ft) under certain conditions.

Some supertankers are too large. Others can offload part of their cargo onto a canal-owned boat to reduce their draft, transit, and reload at the other end of the canal.

Alternatives The main alternative is travelling around Cape of Good Hope at the south of the African continent. This was the only route before the canal was constructed, andmore recentlywhen the canal was closed. It is still the only route for ships which are too large for the canal. In the early 21st century the long route has enjoyed increased popularity because of increasing piracy in Somalia and high canal tolls.

Before the canal's opening in 1869 goods were sometimes offloaded from ships and carried overland between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

Operation

USS Bainbridge, an American warship in the Su