Gardens by Bay Singapore

Garden by the Bay is a park spanning 101 hectares is a key project which is located in Marina Bay. Singapore Government’s vision is transforming Singapore into a “City in a Garden”, and raises the quality of life by enhancing greenery and flora in the city. This is beautiful park comprising three waterfront gardens:   Bay Central Garden is a link between Bay South and Bay East Gardens, it stands at 37 acres with a three KM waterfront promenade which permits for scenic walks stretching from the city center to east of Singapore.

·        Bay East Garden is 79 acres in size and has a 2 KM promenade frontage that embroiders the Marina Reservoir. An interim park was developed at Bay East Garden in support of the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. It designed as a series of large tropical leaf-shaped gardens, each with its own specific landscaping design, character and theme. There will be five water inlets aligned with the prevailing wind direction, maximizing and extending the shoreline while allowing wind and water to penetrate the site to help cool areas of activity around them. Bay East Garden will provide visitors with an unobstructed view of the city skyline. Upcoming developments of Bay East Garden will be based on the theme of water.

·       Bay South Garden is the largest of the three gardens at 130 acres and aims to showcase the best of tropical horticulture and garden artistry. The overall concept of its master plan draws inspiration from an orchid as it is representative of the tropics and of Singapore, being the country's national flower, the Vanda 'Miss Joaquim'.

The project was announced in August 2005, and primary aim was behind to Gardens by the Bay is Singapore Premier urban outdoor recreation space and a national icon. In Jan 2006, an international competition of design held, and over 70 entries submitted by 170 firms from 24 countries. Eventually Grant Associates and Gustafson Porter were awarded the master plan design for the Bay South and Bay East Gardens respectively. The Gardens by Bay has proven extremely popular for event planners, with demand so high that the park has to limit the number of events to three per week.

Joal-Fadiouth Village Made of Sea Shells

At the far end of Petite Côte, a stretch of coast in Senegal, lies a sleepy fishing village called Joal-Fadiouth.  Joal village lies on the mainland, although Fadiouth, linked by a thin 400-meter wooden foot bridge, lies on an island build exclusively of seashells. Over 100 years the inhabitants have been harvesting molluscs, scooping the meat out and applying the empty shells to make their little island. The seashells have amassed over several years and held composed by the roots of mangroves, reeds and giant baobabs. Heaps of empty shells lie everywhere, on streets and building facades and on trinkets sold by street hawkers. 

Fadiouth village is famous largely for its cemetery, which is also made out of shells. The inhabitants of Fadiouth Island are generally Christian, but they also have a substantial Islamic population, and the close-knit community takes enormous pride in an atmosphere of religious tolerance. These sea shells are also used in local architecture and crafts; moreover the village has no motorized transport evidenced by the sign on entering. The origin of village is remains disputed, and assumed to have started when the advance of Almoravids in the 11^th century, which were forced them to leave the country. Few more stories are famous and claimed that Fadiouth have been discovered by the Guelowar when they were expelled from the Kindong of Kaabu.  A community of Portuguese Jewish lived in the village projected in the era of early 17^th century. The first famous personality belongs to this village is first president of Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor, was born at Joal.

Hovenring, the Floating Circular Cycle Bridge in Eindhoven

You might not be hearing before that; there is a special bridge made for pedestrians, and cyclists in the Dutch City of Eindhoven. The Hovenring cable stayed circular bridge diameter is 72 meters is suspended from a 70-meter pylon situated at the center of the roundabout by 24 cables and seems to float over a big novel junction for motorized traffic.  The bridge is with thin decks and conspicuous lighting, purely amazing landmark in the city. When in night, the slender bike ring lit from below to further enhance that floating effect, similar to flying saucer. The steel bridge hoovers over the Heerbaan-Meerenakkerweg intersection. The bridge is impressive pylon marking the entrance way to the cities of Eindhoven and Veldhoven. There is a level crossing which is local housing estate inquiring changing in order to cope with the growing traffic. As Eindhoven City Council refrains from cyclist underpasses and didn’t want a level crossing roundabout either, they asked Dutch bridge specialist IPV Delft to consider at possible solutions. A circular cable-stayed bridge soon appeared to be the right option. Constructing the circle bridge proved to be more difficult than expectation, because Hovenring Bridge was opened for public in Dec 2011, but closed due to suspension cables vibrated too much, and it has to closed for safety point of view. After some adjustment it was finally opened for public on June 29, 2012.

Glenfinnan Viaduct the West Highland Line¸ Scotland

The beautiful Glenfinnan Viaduct is a railway viaduct built between July 1897 and Oct 1898 on the West Highland Line in Glenfinnan, Lochaber, Highland, Scotland. The project cost was around £18,904. It is situated at the top of Loch Shiel in the West Highlands of Scotland, and has been used as location in several films and television series. This project is considered great engineering work of largest concrete without reinforcing built by Sir Robert McAlpine. Sir Robert McAlpine took on a massive civil engineering task with the building of the Mallaig Extension of the West Highland Line from Fort William west to Mallaig, though that was not the originally intended destination. The 21-Arch single track viaduct forms part of the Mallaig extension of the West Highland Railway which was constructed in between 1897 till 1901, which is also built entirely of concrete.

It is a popular tourist event in the area, and the viaduct is one of the major attractions of the line, the lovely viaduct contains of 21 arches, each spanning 15m and has a maximum height of 30m proffering remarkable views down Lochaber’s Loch Shiel. These kinds of projects always offers great scarifications of labour work, and during construction a cart-horse and driver were killed when they fell into one of the piers while dumping their load, and were buried in the concrete. In the latest research has shown that the sad incident happened at Loch Nan Uamh Viaduct, further down the line, near Arisaig, and the driver survived. Memorial plaques are at the latter viaduct and at Glenfinnan Station Museum.

The West Highland railway line connects Fort William and Mallaig, and was a vital vein for the local fishing industry and the highlands economy in general, which suffered extremely after the Highland Clearances of the 1800s. The line is used by passenger trains operated by ScotRail between Glasgow Queen Street and Mallaig, usually diesel multiple units. The viaduct project was not often appreciated, and several authorities criticized when this viaduct was first proposed. According to them; it would be prove a monstrosity, enough in ugliness to take away all the charm and beauty of natural scenes. Some would endorse this opinion now and wholeheartedly agreed.