Manhole Covers: Drainspotting in Japan

After World War 2, Japan wanted o spread the importance of its new sewer system projects. Okinawa’s Naha city was the first to artistcally design a manhole cover in 1977. Now 95 % of all municipalities in Japan have customized manhole covers, with over 12,000 designs. A video by John Daub, with music by Kevin MacLeod.

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Cable-Stayed, Suspension, Draw, Arch, Truss

Engineer Nehemiah Mabry explains which types of bridges are used in which situations.

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Belt & Road

China’s Belt and Road Initiative is an infrastructure project that spans over 60 countries, and will cost over a trillion dollars. The plan is to make it easier for the world to trade with China, by funding roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, and pipelines in Asia and Africa. A Vox video by Sam Ellis.

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Private Investor Improves Basic Infrastructure in Mexico

Wealthy private investor Joaquin Guzmán has bankrolled a new tunnel in the Santa Juana neighborhood of Almoloya de Juárez, Mexico, 16 miles from Toluca. The tunnel, 5 1/2 feet in diameter, stretches about a mile from the Centro Federal de Readaptación Social No. 1 “Altiplano,” a government facility, to an unfinished house surrounded by cornfields, perhaps slated for future development. It is estimated that the sophisticated underground structure cost $5 million to complete.

More information:

“Mexico drug lord Guzman’s escape tunnel is a minor engineering masterpiece,” Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

“How Mexico’s Most-Wanted Drug Lord Escaped From Prison (Again),” Larry Buchanan, Josh Keller, and Derek Watkins, New York Times

“Undermining Mexico: How ‘El Chapo’ built a criminal empire — and escaped prison — by digging deep.” Nick Miroff, Washington Post

“How a Mexican drug kingpin’s daring prison escape made him a hip-hop icon & an outlaw hero,” Matthew Pulver, Salon

Update:

“Underworld: How the Sinaloa drug cartel digs its tunnels,” Monte Reel, The New Yorker