unilad homepage
  • News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
 Inside the $20,000,000,000 remote airport that’s sinking into the sea

Home> News> World News

Published 15:55 12 Oct 2024 GMT+1

Inside the $20,000,000,000 remote airport that’s sinking into the sea

It is an example of great civil engineering despite the fact it has sunk 38 feet in just 30 years

Joe Yates

Joe Yates

google discoverFollow us on Google Discover

A $20 billion airport built in the sea had everything planned for... or at least almost everything.

Incredibly, Japanese architects created a ground breaking futuristic airport on the Osaka Bay, which is located in central Japan around 300 miles to the west of Tokyo.

The bay, which according to Google has a mean depth of 27 meters and flows seamlessly into the Wakayama Bay, which in turn flows into the Pacific Ocean, sits beside the port city of Osaka and is home to the Kansai International Airport.

Advert

An island - Kankūjima - was specially built to house the airport, the idea of which was first created as a solution to overcrowding at Osaka International Airport.

The island is split into two areas for each airport building - terminal one and terminal two.

Terminal one, designed by Renzo Piano, sees international and domestic flights by major airlines' arrivals and departures and measures a whopping 1.7km making it the current longest airport terminal in the world.

Terminal two is for more local flights.

It opened back in 1994 and to date so far it has sunk 38 feet.

An undated picture of Kansai International Airport before it added a second terminal (AFP via Getty Images)
An undated picture of Kansai International Airport before it added a second terminal (AFP via Getty Images)

While they thought of most things during construction, including consolidating clay beneath the sea bed which the airport sits on, engineers hadn't realised how unpredictable the level beneath the initial clay would be as it consists of pockets of sand.

Despite splashing hundreds of millions on creating a seawall, the island is expected to sink 13 more feet by 2056 - with experts predicting it will be submerged by 2100.

Inside the airport has an impressive array of shops - such as Chanel, Hermes and Cartier - as well as restaurants, it's what the airport is like from the outside which is taking social media users' breath away.

According to YouTube account Design Nerd, the airport sees a staggering 20 million passengers travel through it each year, making it the third busiest airport in the country, while it also transports one million tons of cargo.

Flooding of Kansai International Airport after Typhoon Jebi hit Japan's west coast in 2018 (JIJI PRESS/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)
Flooding of Kansai International Airport after Typhoon Jebi hit Japan's west coast in 2018 (JIJI PRESS/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)

And social media users are in awe of the $20 billion island site.

Taking to Twitter, one user wrote: "Kansai Airport Japan Built in Ocean..see my dear ..wht a wonderful site."

"Wow.. This is awesome.. Airport floating in the middle of the ocean," another commented.

A third added: "Kansai AirPort is impressive...an man made Island in the middle of the ocean."

And a fourth wrote: "Kansai Airport Built in Ocean! Great Example of Civil Engineering!"

While it may be brilliant civil engineering, it doesn't mean it won't still sink.

Back in 2018, a deadly typhoon named Jebi hit Japan killing 10 people and flooded the airport having breached the sea walls.

Jebi was that powerful it knocked an oil tanker into the bridge that connected Kansai International Airport with mainland Japan, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded inside the terminals.

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock

Topics: Japan, Nature, Travel

Joe Yates
Joe Yates

Joe is a journalist for UNILAD, who particularly enjoys writing about crime. He has worked in journalism for five years, and has covered everything from murder trials to celeb news.

X

@JMYjourno

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

29 mins ago
2 hours ago
4 hours ago
  • Alex Wong/Getty Images
    29 mins ago

    Trump makes uncomfortable Pearl Harbour joke in front of Japanese Prime Minister

    Trump was meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi when he made the remarks

    News
  • Getty Stock
    2 hours ago

    The 25 happiest countries in the world for 2026 revealed

    The ranking looks at more than 140 countries worldwide, and these are the top 25

    News
  • Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images
    2 hours ago

    Afroman wins lawsuit after being accused of causing 'tremendous pain' with song about having sex with officer's wife

    Afroman, whose real name is Joseph Foreman, was sued by several sheriff’s deputies in Adams County, Ohio, in 2023

    Celebrity
  • X
    4 hours ago

    Chilling moment Israeli missile hits meters away from British journalist during live report in Lebanon

    Journalist Steve Sweeney had to be hospitalized afterwards

    News
  • Inside the $321,000 gift bag given at the Oscars to top actor nominees
  • I made five mistakes when I went to Japan for the first time that I've been left regretting
  • Japan discovers metal that could drastically change the world after investing $107,000,000,000 into revolution
  • Inside the creepy US airport that's a magnet for conspiracy theories from a killer horse to secret illuminati bunkers