Singapore’s New Metro Line is Construction Hell - #109

[Music] This is where they are building the largest nuclear fusion reactor in the world. You have brought a bunch on my head and checked out this pool. America on Main Street and at the dinner table is talking about infrastructure. When 20 years ago they didn't even know what that meant. Today those towers are an astounding display of wealth for Steve and engineering first. It's impacting everyday Americans. I am against the train the way it's being done right now. Your city housing is a scam. It is a scam scam scam scam scam. The shard in central London is being officially open today and at 310 meters tall, it's Europe's newest and tallest skyscraper. Hello, I'm Fred Mills and this is the world's best construction podcast by the B1M. [Music] Hello and welcome to your latest episode of the world's best construction podcast. I'm your host Freds and as always I'm joined by Luke and Liam. And Liam has some really big news. We got first mate. I'm a dead. Wooo! [Laughter] Yeah mate. I've finally got an update. I've actually been doing something in the last seven days. Yeah, my partner gave birth to a little boy last week which is a beautiful moment. And uh. Yeah, here we are. Lots changed. How's the sleep going? Uh, yeah it's alright. Put all over the places in it. I mean, yeah I mean, uh. I've never had sort of goes on about, you know, how hard it is. Yeah, it's really tough waking up during the night. I'm alright. It's been a week and I'm alright. So, um. I'll check back in in a month's time. We'll do that some time to go and go mate. Maybe just pumped up on the journal then. Well, massive congratulations mate. We're very happy for you. It's exciting news. Many marsh. There's another one. Yeah, there is another one. It's a boy. So he'll be a fellow bald man in about 20 years. [Laughter] It's got some good hair for the fight. Oh, I've seen some good hair to start with. Hey, starting strong mate. Not a very strong. Yeah, exactly. Good work, congratulations. How things been over in Essex? Warm, mate. Warm. I don't want to be just a stereotypical Brit and just talk about the weather. It's so hot, so humid. And my house is old. It's not designed to be cool in the summer because that's too smart. You know, that's too sensible. You are looking a bit pink mate. You're actually similar to when my kid was born. [Laughter] Right pink. [Laughter] Yeah. Let's have a look. I've got a high hairline on Luke then on your baby. Yeah. Me and the hairline's on the run as well, mate. [Laughter] I'll get roasted here today. You know what? It's literally literally. Yeah, no, no. It's warm, mate. I've been just jealous of you guys really traveling around. Big life updates, Fred. You've been to California. I have been to California. Mate. The weather there was absolutely perfect. It's hot and sunny but there's a nice sea breeze. Mmm. Oh, it's just. I want to move. I want to move to California. Do you actually? Yeah. No, you don't. 100%. No, you don't really want to move there. You're just saying that. No, I can see myself there. What a hundred percent I can see myself there. What are you doing over there, mate? If someone was just looking at your Instagram, you just look like you're doing like a topless photo shoot in entire week, mate. You're doing like a. In Thai, mate. You're doing a. In Thai, mate. You're doing a topless calendar shoot or I don't know. I don't endorse that but I actually don't know what you're doing. I was over there for a few different meetings. I went to. [Laughter] I had a really good time visiting ProQ or HQ. ProQ, one of my main partners on BWD. I said a really good time visiting their HQ up in Santa Barbara and Coppateen there. Which was good. And then obviously on my way out of. Because I flew into LA and then went to Santa Barbara. Went to Golds gym in Santa Barbara. Because Golds gym is just like iconic. And then the way out had a cheeky stop at Golds gym Venice. The world's most famous gym and it was absolutely incredible. I was giggling. It was so good. There was a moment where I was just stood round just looking around just smiling. I just didn't know I had to start. I was so good. Best gym in the world. On one of your Instagram picks, mate, a guy called Davis, LFC commented, "Can just imagine Luke and Liam's reaction when they see this, because they love a picture of Big Buff red." There you go. Come on, Luke. Hit me. What do you want to say? Nothing. I'm not saying nothing. I thought, "I think it would great, mate. You look oiled up and great." You know? It looks oiled up, didn't it? I'm going to say you're doing some dips in my videos and they are no reps. You're not getting deep enough on the event. Construction rate. I love when people put construction puns on your posts. Oh, no. It's quite a pound. It's quite a pound. No, no. You look great, mate. And the trip looked fantastic. I'm glad it was a productive one, man. Yeah, it was very good. Very good trip. I love a bit of California. It was a long way. But it's what I do these days. A lot of long, long travel lately. But I was very good. I love it. I love a lot of long, long travel lately. But I was very good, very good, good fun time. Anyway, guys, we have a very good episode coming up for you this week. First off, we're talking about why Singapore's Metro is construction hell. A video that came out on the B1M yesterday. Also in the news, we're talking about the LA-28 Olympic venues, which look incredible. And China's vast new convention centre. As always, whole thing is going to be sprinkled with some of your messages and comments from the week. Let's do it. Let's get cracking. Let's go. [Music] First of its week, we're talking about why Singapore's Metro is construction hell. Now, Singapore is building the Cross Island Line, which again, not a great name for an infrastructure project, though it does do what it says in the tin. It's a new rail line, which fun enough goes across the island. Anyway, the Cross Island Line is 58 kilometres. A new route is going to be the longest line on the entire Singapore Metro network. It's going to cut journey times across the island by more than half. The Land Transport Authority, aka the LTA, announced the plan in 2013 and began construction in January 2023. The new Cross-Unand Line is going to be opened in two phases between 2030 and 2032. Once up and running, it's going to serve new districts, as well as relief pressure on the existing East-West Line. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? This is a very exciting project going to connect Singapore more so than it is connected already. Cut journey times in half, a 58 kilometres new route, bingo, right? Infrastructure gold. Yeah, mate. Sounds very straightforward. And I know that's exactly what we're going to discuss in the next 20 minutes. [Laughter] That is definitely not straightforward. Now, does anyone who's been to Singapore know and I've been to Singapore twice, I've experienced the airport. It really is quite congested, but anyway, Singapore as a country is the third most densely populated country in the world. Liam tells me after Macao and Monaco. Is that all right? Yep. It is, mate. Yeah, actually did a little googling before that because I would have thought somebody like Hong Kong or India. Yeah, being fun. Apparently not. Which is top Monaco? Yes. Monaco, no, no, no, no, Macao. Monaco, Singapore. Wow. But. Monaco's got to be on paper though, right? Because that population's got to be. Okay. Got fluctuate depending on the season, surely. You'd imagine, right? Yeah, you'd see. I don't know, mate. I mean, look, these may change because there's a few different links. One of the links saying Macao, Monaco, Singapore, Hong Kong, Gibraltar. And then another one is saying Macao, Monaco, Singapore. Another one is saying Monaco, Singapore, Hong Kong. So it's a bit of change, but you kind of get interested. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Monaco. I mean, whenever I've been, I've been a Monaco twice, right? And it was dead both times. Like, no one on the streets. Like, there's a couple of Ferrari's drive around. There's no one at the casino. No one at the beach. I was there in summer. Maybe it's just registered citizens, like you were saying, "Oh, here, Luke." Because most of the people in Monaco are probably on their yachts or living in London and using a tax haven or whatever they do. Yeah. Yeah. Where Singapore is an actual, like, lived in city. Yeah. Isn't it? Right? That's kind of the point where. And you can see when you fly in, because that's the main way of seeing Singapore is flying in and out of Changi. If you can see how density pop play, then congested is. Because it is a very built-up area. I imagine maybe the changing the list ranking is to do with what you're doing. It's to do with what you're class as a country or a territory or a special administrative zone. Or because, like, Gibraltar's a bit of a vague one, isn't it? Hong Kong's a bit. Is a special administrative zone. It used to be its own territory. And, yeah, miss. That might be where the confusion comes from, perhaps. Maybe. Maybe. But Singapore's. Singapore is independent. Throwing it through, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Singapore is independent country. Yeah. With the others in the list, yeah, absolutely. And as we've established now, the swinging about to Singapore, the third most denser populated country in the world. We know the least most denser populated country in the world. Don't we? From a recent podcast, Luke? In Greenland. There you go. There we go. Summer between the rest of the world. Anyway, Singapore is busy, built up, congested. In the middle of it is the central catchment nature reserve, which is one of only a handful of reserves and green spaces in the whole of Singapore. There are 1,600 types of plants and a host of animals like the Asian fairy blue bird and the banded leaf monkey. There you go, there's one for a future. Bionem quiz. The, did you guys know they had monkeys in Singapore? I didn't know that, no. I would have guessed though. Like, I really? Yeah, because monkeys in Malaysia. Yeah. A bit of a size difference. Yeah, it's the same like, same sort of part of the world, isn't it? Yeah. I actually thought they, the majority of Singapore was just housing, residential highways, and office buildings. It's quite lush. There is, there is, there is all that. But there is also quite a lot of lushness and greenery going on. Yeah, it's hard and vibe. It's part of, and you see part of that in the video, but that's part of how the city, the, well, the small state is so well designed. It's because they balance the high population, density with green spaces, which is, it's so important, so important. Yeah. Yeah. The problem with building a cross island line, such as the one we're talking about in this video, is that when you build it through a congested area like Singapore, you're inevitably going to run into things like buildings, like foundations, like Bandit Leap monkeys here and there. Now, when the original rail was announced, it passed under this nature reserve, and nature groups were protesting. You may think, why, why is it a problem when they're digging under the reserve, it shouldn't matter. The thing is, tunneling just below the surface in soft soil, produces a lot of liquid, and that can contaminate groundwater, including the groundwater in the nature park, and it can also destabilize the soil and lead to settlement damaging the nature reserve. So engineers either have to be really careful or dig a much deeper tunnel. Now, to go deeper, that means going away from the soft soil and down into bedrock, which is a lot harder, but it's more stable and gives you better positions, better conditions, sorry, for digging a tunnel. But to do that, you're first need to find out where the bedrock is and how deep it is, and that means drilling bore holes down into the earth until you hit the bedrock, and that also means, in this case, digging up some of the nature reserve. Now, the land transport authority, the LTA, who introduced you earlier, had the initial plan to do that by clearing a path through the reserve to allow easy access for the borehole machines, which obviously was causing some uproar among conservationists. They also had to get the tunnel bore machines in and out of the ground where the tunnel was being constructed, which all cement digging up part of this nature reserve to create a big kind of entry shaft. So nature groups estimated around 15,000 square meters of lush forest would have to be cleared to do this, which wasn't good. So instantly, you've got a big infrastructure project, you've got local opposition, you've got a big important nature reserve in Singapore being dug up, and the project will face some challenges. What they then looked at was a sort of tersef route, which was skirt around the southern edge of the reserve and cost an extra $1.5 billion US dollars and has six minutes to the journey time. So they basically thought that was just basically too much money, too much time added. So what they did was, LTA, spent six years working with the Nature Society of Singapore to find a way to build the tunnel without causing any damage to the reserve before they then picked a final route in 2019. So after doing soil samples, they used an existing trail to transport borehole machinery rather than taking a direct path and destroying any forest area. And once the rock depth was established, they did extensive biodiversity studies before they constructed these new launch and retrieval shafts for the TVM. So this is an amazing story of how they basically built this new, really critically important, there are buildings that's new, quickly important rail line, and then they're going to be building a tunnel and they're going to be building a tunnel and they're going to be building a tunnel and they're going to be building a tunnel The Metrolinem we're talking about here is it sounds like paradise it sounds like a real no-brainer but for construction teams, it's absolute hell Yeah, you're leaving out one vital detail, mate and that is of course, um, inclusion of world-world wet you know, that doesn't get damaged, does it? That doesn't get. Don't believe so. What a walk-up heart, I hate my name. Raising. World-World-World-Ware, what a name. Yeah. I want to go Singapore just for that, mate. That's. That's what. I don't. The other thing as well, the station for Singapore Airport, right, is called, uh, like, Air-Ove-Lor, something like that. What's it called? Is it? Instead of calling it. Instead of calling it like Airport, Chang-E, or something, they call it like Airport Town, or something like that. Did you not notice that? I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to. Is it so hot that I'm just hallucinating? Possibly. I never. Yeah, but also, I don't know. Right, okay, let me find you to get a little train between terminals, so you know, I've used. Oh, stop it. I've probably been in there, like, ten times. I've never been there. It's been there. It's, um, it's really interesting. I think this is one of the first projects we've discussed on the podcast where, um, the construction crew work with local, um, nature groups to work out a solution instead of just going, we're going to ball-goes through it and clear the way, you know what I mean? I feel like this is one of the first ones where we've. They've actually come to a solution where they spent, like, five or six years working on a solution to get to this point, which is, um, which is a pretty cool thing to see. Yeah. It certainly feels one of the most collaborative, doesn't it? I think, often, those groups do come to agreements, but it's often, it's done in a way that, like, you say, Liam, is quite confrontational. It feels like it's quite a lot of standoff on both sides sort of lose out in a way. Yeah, it feels really positive, doesn't it? Yeah, exactly. I think, like, some other countries were focused on in the past, you know, the government will just dimmer, you know, towns. Yeah. How's this, and they'll just reposition if you think, doesn't matter if it's, um, nature groups or houses or whatever. Um, so, yeah, the collaborations, it's nice to see. Yeah, absolutely. And like the power of infrastructure, for me, I know I'm going back to me harping on about the power of construction again, but it shows what teams at this face and what they do. But then the impact of what they're, what they're creating here, they're cutting journey times in half. That's another big economic boost for Singapore. It's massive. Yeah. Yeah, big time, mate. And also, one of the things I took away from this video is, um, particularly with here in the UK, you know, change of government, change of policy, change of direction in construction and housing, is I wonder how we can avoid building on Greenbell as well, you know, because it is so important. It's so, so vital to have green spaces in towns and cities and outside of towns and cities as well. Um, and I think to myself, yeah, there's, I'm sure there's a lot we can learn from this, you know, the Singaporeans and the Singapore government, they demand high quality, don't they? And they never do things just on the cheap, you know, buy cheap by twice. And that's our, I was, I was taking a lot away away from this video thinking, yeah, I, I think a lot of places can learn from Singapore. Definitely. Yeah, I think you can see the importance that Green space has in Singapore. It's like an extreme kind of melting pot of, of pressure, is that where you have got such limited space that protecting green spaces becomes ever more important, because that's all we've got in a way. And that has bred, I think, quite strict protections around these nature reserves, but it's also led to really tall, high rise building construction to get as much capacity as you can onto, onto these spaces. Um, obviously it's less pronounced in other cities around the world like London. But I, again, I think the protection of the Green Belt is an important thing. I think it's a critical thing for the UK to do because that's like, you know, add. I grandchildren and I great grandchildren will thank us for doing that. And I think there are better, more efficient ways to use what they're terming grey belts in and around the city, underused pieces of land, piece of land that could be used in a more effective way. Uh, opening those up for developments is the way to go rather than irreversibly building on green space. Well, Fred, me, you've just been to LA, you know, and I love LA, but like when you're flying in, you know, you see the sprawl and it just goes on and on and on. We can't just keep doing that with cities. We can't just build it out. And I was, I was having this conversation with someone the other day and they were like, oh, you know, they're, they're, they just want to build houses on fields and green belt. And I was like, yeah, but mate, like, you know, they're kind of turning a rock in a hard place on like the government local councils because you either build up or you. builds houses on new land, that's it. That's our options because population isn't decreasing, it's increasing, it needs to increase. Although I got quite a powerful reminder of why LA is not as high-rise as it could be when I was there last week because there was an earthquake, there was a 5.6 earthquake when I was there. So I was literally in my hotel room and my iPhone suddenly just screamed, just went black and this big earthquake warning came up saying earthquake detected, run, take cover now. I found this like beeping and I was like, oh this really weird, what's this? And then I heard the beeps down the street and down the hotel corridor and then I stood up and within that time the whole building started to sway and shake and I went stood in the doorway between my hotel bedroom and bathroom and then it stopped. I had no idea like, because I was staying on the ground floor, I was like, is this whole building going to come down? Tough of me, I had no idea when the earthquake was going to stop, I finished, I had no idea when the magnitude was, but yeah, that's the first time I've been in LA and everyone there was like, oh yeah, that happens all the time, that wasn't so bad. Yeah, it's the first time I've been there and experienced one and that's when I was like, oh, maybe that's why there aren't as many high-rise buildings as there could be. That's why I've been avoided it a bit. So your first earthquake? No, my second earthquake. Yeah, first was there, but you mate, whoa. No, I was involved in the the Melton-Mobri earthquake of 2007. Oh, the UK. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So when I was at Melton-Mobri, yeah, I was actually, I was at a factory. Pies, you mate, pies there. When I was at Lafper-Yuni, there was an earthquake up there, very rare UK earthquake and I was in bed at the time, so I'm middle of the night and it was almost picking up my bed and dropping it, picking it, dropping it, picking it, dropping it. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. Other people experienced it too, guys. It wasn't just a really big dream. Again, yeah, I'm dreaming about this air port station. I've just loaded up the Singapore metro. We're still on that. You're still on that. Yeah. Because I'm like, where did I get this from? I think I must have dreamed about it, mate. Right, but there is a few station names in Singapore, where you're like, oh, that is straight out of the classic British train station names. Yeah. It's a station we got. We got Somerset. Oh. Yeah. We got Fort Canning. Nice. Yeah. Queenstown Commonwealth. It's amazing. But we've got a nice Mayflower, Bright Hill, Upper Thompson. Anyway, just adding that in. The metro map looks so cool. It looks so cool. You were having a dream that you were in Singapore and you were like stressing about how to get to the airport when you were thinking, do I go to the airport and stay the night at the airport? And then before I get my plane, bad to our six. Don't. Don't. Do I spend more money on my holiday? I'd add it to pretty nice. It's not going to the airport. It's saving money. Right. No, I'm saving this for later. Save it for later. No, no, it's like people bring up repeated things that you do and mock you for a look. What? Let me go into the gym. I don't bring that up. Be ridiculed looking buff. It's not my fault. Oiled up topless photos, mate. I was sweating. I was dad now. Do I have a sweating? Hang on. Can you take a picture? Oh, hang on. I just need to take my shirt off. I just need it. Oil. Oil up. I didn't look into the distance. There's a lot of sleep out there. Did you time? Did you put a time on your phone to take the photos or do you buy someone? No, I asked. I saw. But that's in the culture. It's been in the context of the photography god. By looks of it. Yeah. But that's the culture. Gold's gyms. I like you. You do. Yeah. You do. It's quite touristy. They're a big, there was a big gift shop, which again, they stung me for a walk, but then they just couldn't resist. What was the damage, mate? What was the damage? Oh, can't say. Couldn't sound the podcast because my wife listens. It wasn't that much. $2. Big up. Big up. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think about the Singapore Cross Island line expansion video that came out of the B1M yesterday. I really like this video because again, just talks about the power of construction. What these teams face day in day out and the impact the infrastructure can have. So yeah, as a two-time visitor to Singapore, brackets, Changi Airport, I would highly recommend you go and watch that video. Let us know what you think of podcasts at the B1M.com. [Music] Awesome to know you're this week. We are talking about the wrapping up of the Paris 2024 Olympics and the passing of the torch, the passing of the flag via Tom Cruise and Snoop Dogg to LA 2028. And we're going to be looking at some of the key venues of LA 2028, which have been announced, which to be honest, look a lot better than I thought they would. It looks awesome. I think the big challenge with LA is they're talking about car free games. They're talking about traffic being being minimized. A lot of public transit is being used. A lot of these venues they've picked are spread out around the Los Angeles, or should I say greater Los Angeles area. And when I say great Los Angeles, that even extent to Oklahoma in some instances. But it does the challenge to me feels like how do they connect all these great venues in a efficient, sustainable, quick way. I'm sure we'll come to that. What do you guys reckon? Car free. Car free is what they're saying. They have an alarm. Just be honest. You don't need to, like we get it. It's LA. You have to drive everywhere, right? Light it. It's good to have goals, but just don't give me the spill. Don't light to our faces. It's what a load of rubbish, mate. The venues look good though. They need to do look good. If they're going to do Oklahoma, I don't know why they don't do the sphere. Do an event at this place. I know. Why is there no other than the list? Like weightlifting at this sphere or something. Shopping as the guy does a green, just like clean and snatch. He's like, "Wow, looks good, the world." I don't know. It's, yeah. On his question, on his question, do you think the Olympics is losing its sort of premiere feel to an event? I see. I think it is a little bit, mate. I just want to keep you clear as much. It was awesome. Every night I'd tune in to see all the highlights and see the amazing stuff that got on. When the opening ceremony happened, it was like, "Paris gets a bit of a bad knalk, and there's a bit of discussion about where it is. We want it to come down to just the sports." I think it's awesome. I think it really is awesome. No, I hear you, mate. I do hear you. But as an event, I just felt like it's changed since probably Rio. I think Rio kind of left bad taste in a lot of people. Yeah, I don't know. Tokyo was a right off because yeah, I don't know. I don't know. That was a right off. I don't know why. Why didn't they crack on with it? Why didn't they do what they did for the Euros and just do it a year later? They did do it a year later, didn't they? It was 2021. What for the Tokyo Olympics? Tokyo is in 2021 but no audiences. All right. Okay. Well, listen, memorable. Yeah. Clearly not for you. That's what I mean. It's not memorable. I don't know. Anyway, the venues here do look really good. They do those of you who are listening and can't see these images. There is a link down there in the podcast description if you're just going to look at them. Basically, they are talking about, I think most dramatically. They are talking about a conversion to the SoFi stadium, probably the world's biggest stadium where the last Super Bowl was held into a temporary swimming venue. They're going to reduce the capacity by 38,000 people, which feels a bit crazy. But it's still going to be the biggest ever swimming venue at an Olympic Games. Now America, as you've just seen in Paris, dominates the swimming. So to have this bigger venue for swimming at the Olympics, I think is epic. It's going to be so cool. The render of it looks insane. And yes, it's the atmosphere and that space would be amazing. It's a great idea. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's my favourite stadium in it. Beautiful stadium. I have to say, people are saying that they think Paris had some really good backdrops and don't get me wrong. He did have some good backdrops. But LA, okay. It's got the traffic thing. It's got a bad time zone for most of the world. But it has got the weather and it has got some pretty good looking venues. Yes. So far, stadium for swimming. The athletics and the opening ceremony is being held at the iconic Los Angeles Memorial Colosseum, where the 1932 Olympics were held, I think. Beautiful, beautiful venue. Ninety-four Olympics were there as well. They've got the Olympic flame. It's open air. It's very LA. Probably won't rain. Love it. It looks very good. I mean, Fred of V there. Fred of V there. Down at Gomes Gym. Yeah. Especially the big Gomes Gym because it's the best gym in the world. I never, ever train the gym that good again. Basketball, the Intuit dome. We covered Intuit dome recently on the V1M. Cracking venue for basketball. Gym Nastyx of the Crypto Arena. Not sure if it'll still be called the Crypto Arena by them. But anyway, Gym Nastyx down there. Canoes Latham is happening over a white water rafting centre in in Oklahoma City, which is not LA, not really. - Where nearer lay? - It's far from here, like really far. How did they manage that one? - Well, the surfing in Paris was into Heaty, wasn't it? - Yeah. - So maybe you can get away with one. - Yeah, but you can do a bit of canoeing in California or other mansion, you know? - Yeah. - Well, I think with this though, they're trying to not build custom venues from scratch so they then have this Olympic-grade white water arcing center at Oklahoma City. - I see. - As well as a big old skyscraper soon. - Oh, mate. - Yeah. - And Jerozotics Zoo, also at Oklahoma. - I'm buzzing for that Oklahoma skyscraper. That's gonna be ridiculous, ridiculous. - Yeah. So it's gonna be good, guys, have a look at the link down below. There are some banging venues for LA-2028. It's a lot more exciting than I thought was gonna be. I have to say, I think the, yeah, the branding, the layout, the venues, the stuff they've chosen looks great. I'm excited already, even though it's four years away. So, (laughs) should be, should be an interesting one. Few comments on this, Chris saying, "Are they gonna reuse the cauldron? It's already there and it's still lit from time to time. I would imagine they are gonna reuse the cauldron." Makes a lot of sense. Hopefully we don't have a floating hot air balloon like Paris 'cause that didn't redo for me. Didn't float my boat. - Mid, mate, mid. When did LA last host the Olympics? Was it in the '80s? - '84, yeah. - '84. - Very successfully as well. - Yeah, no, yeah. I think it's regarded as one of the best, isn't it? - Yeah. - Yeah, London was the best though. Let's be honest, come on. (laughs) Easy, easy. Opening ceremony to the event itself. It was just unbelievable. - He, Aiden's saying they should have the Olympic rings in a freeway loop. That's peak America. (laughs) Yeah. Another chap saying LA is so ready. Here's a venue for local home. (laughs) And then last of all, this is Michael saying that this is the future of the Olympics. Reuse, rebuild, upgrade, existing venues instead of building from scratch. Loving the Paris Olympics and looking forward to the LA Games. - I completely agree. Well said. What are you thinking, Liam? Are you in for the LA Olympics, mate? - Yeah, mate, I enjoy having the Olympics on to be honest. It was perfect timing. I was in the hospital last week. And so I was like, I wake up two in the morning so I was just like washing the athletics, like all night and then I'd wake up and then replace it be on. So, yeah, I love it. And I remember just being a kid. Like growing up and just having the Olympics on. It's like nostalgic, you know? It's like a couple of weeks. We're just spoiled on. Yeah, it's cool. - So you're like going through a contraction. You're like, can you just just be quiet? 'Cause you can't see this gobbling. Just want to see the 100 meters finish, love. - Yeah, that's exactly how it was. That's exactly what it was. - Can you feed the baby? Yep, two seconds. Just just just shh. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Liam, your little one will be four when this is going down at LA 2020. That's cool, right? - He's good at maths, I look. - Now. - You know what I'm saying? - Spot on, mate. Spot on. - No, no. (laughing) - What weird feeling though? What weird feeling now, V.A. You'll be like, oh, my little boy. You're like, oh, I'm just going to be weird. That is pretty weird. - I've got to say, the athletics this year, I know, this is super off topic. Not as exciting. 100 meters sprint without this game bowl, and all those other guys, like, it's just, it's just a bit boring, isn't it? - Well, I don't know. - The 100 meters was so close. They almost felt a bit like it sort of came down to the computer a bit, didn't they? - We were rooting for Jamaica, obviously, with Monness' family, Ben from Jamaica. - Same man. - Yeah, I love Jamaica and I'm in pit team, like, I think he thought he'd won it as well. - I think he could say he did win it, though, mate. - Is it the body part or is it head? I don't understand, because his foot was hand, or something, it looked like a win over the line first. And I really, really dislike the American guy. - Yeah. (laughing) - I'm really dislike him. I'm just thinking. - One of my friends got a silver medal, a joint silver medal, because he was 0.02 seconds touching the wall behind the gold winner. Like, that is just, sure do they still get a gold at that point? That's just ridiculous. - No, mate. - Yeah, good, good. - You're a good gold for participating. You didn't win it, so. - Now, next up we're swinging over to China, where a 1.7 kilometers long convention center is set to be constructed. This, you think, is absolutely enormous. This is Richard Rogers' practice, Rogers, Sturt, Carbron partners, and TJAD, they won an international competition with the proposals for this. It's huge. It makes the Excel look tiny, and that's saying something. This is the, I'm gonna get this wrong, but it's the Zongwang International Convention Center phase two, conference center and hotel, which again needs a snappier name. This is again, more business case for a, product naming consultancy. Focusing on connectivity and modularity, the building's gonna feature an elevated central spine connecting its three main entrances, and all the exhibition halls, the conference center and the hotel, the conference center, which is just like a small town. It's absolutely enormous this thing. It's gonna be broken up into 16 smaller exhibition halls arranged either side of this central spine, a massive new development, covers an area of 925 acres, construction area of 527,000 square meters. This thing is enormous. It's absolutely vast. The renders looking incredible, especially if they can't take them at night and lift it up in pink. Guys, what do you think of this? If you go into an event here, you've got a West Trainers, right? You've got where comfy shoes. Yeah, got to be the new balances. Got to be the new balances. It's higher a push bike, wouldn't you? To get around. Yeah, a little line bike. Let's try it on there. As convention centers go, I think this is exceptional. Exceptional, mate. That's a back-out accomplishment, if I. Well, let's convent the centers. Yeah, no. Like, convention centers aren't known for, you know, the, they're not landmarks, are they? Yeah. This is tremendous, mate. Absolutely tremendous. I love that the Boulevard, the central Boulevard running through the whole convention center has natural lighting. Yeah. Mate, that's one thing with a lot of convention centers. Is they're very dark, gloomy. Mate, this is, this is absolutely brilliant. I love like the courtyard that connects the big part of the convention center to a smaller bit. Mate, I don't think there's a lot wrong with it. Yeah, I agree, mate. It's very cool for a convention center. My first thought is, man, it's going to take them ages to clean the windows. That's a lot of windows. It's a good point, though, isn't it? Because the maintenance is the thing is important. You're going to be constantly cleaning it. Yeah. Yeah. I also agree, like a lot of convention centers, they are dark. There's just really boxy warehouses, aren't they? And they're just very like sterile. This is really cool to see. Yeah, it'd be cool flying over that as well, just seeing all the LED lights lit up. Yeah, very interesting. Big time. Big time, mate. Big time. Slide, no. Fred, did you see it? Because I know you love the aviation world. British Airways aren't flying to Beijing anymore. Did you see that? No, I did see that. Yes, I did see that. Crazy, right? Yeah, good story. I know this is something more to say. I've got this amazing. I did see that, mate. If you get me on, get me on seek configuration between different model of aircraft by airline and you will have me. Get me on wingtip design, jet ranges, fuel efficiency. I can answer those questions, but B.A.'s route change is not really got much coming on that one. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Yeah, nice. Max, the massive convention center in China. Cody speaking for us all, saying, is there a tram at least? Well, we didn't know you, mate. I think there should be some kind of public transport system or something to get you from one end to the other. They kind of have that excelled on me with the DLR with two stops that either end. That's right. And even the Elizabeth line stops off a custom house now. Yeah, right. There you go. Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. I mean, they're so big that surely there must be a way of getting from one end to the other. This is the sort of thing where Elon Musk would come in and put, you know, one of these, his hyper tunnel things in whatever he's called, boring tunnel. What's my whatever he's? Yeah. You can ride Teslas from one end to the other. Yeah. Did you, um, have you guys seen the photos of when they convert the Excel center into a formula? Yes. Race, my God. And they're incredible. Unbelievable. Size of it. Yeah. Yeah. It is well impressive. Yeah. I wonder if they could do the same here. You know, I was just thinking the same thing. They used the Excel for that Batman movie as well. Don't they? Dark night. Rhymes this or dark night? Yeah. Very nice. This does happen. One of the renders there are like those travelator things. You have at the airport. You know, you sort of walk along really fast. Yeah. They've got a couple of them at Singapore airport, mate. You'd probably, you'd probably know the specialist. Most airports do have them. Often filled with people who think it's okay to stand there and put their bags down in the middle of it. Oh, mate. No, I have to be here. And then they get real grumpy when you push past them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what do you think this is? And then guy called Thomas saying, knowing the Chinese, this will be up in two weeks. Well, maybe not two weeks, but I'm sure it'll be extorted pretty quickly. I do love this is obviously Richard Rogers is praxis, Richard Rogers, obviously late Richard Rogers, none of the others. But it really does speak to his architectural style and the style that practice have, where the structures very exposed they make they make architecture out of the structure. And I think it's yeah, really beautiful and a really nice addition. I'm excited to see this be constructed. That's excited to walk it. We'll definitely bring some trainers. Anyway guys, that's it for all of the news this week. Sprinkle over to the email inbox. What have you got for us Luke? We've got two Apple podcast reviews. Do we now mate? Are they good? Yeah, both five star mate, both five star. The first one is world's best travel podcast, five star. Absolutely, the best travel podcast out there and pretty decent construction one. Whether it's finding the best way to get to Tokyo, the most efficient journey to Heathrow, or just hearing about some of their favorite nudist bitches, it's always fun listening to Fred Carl and Liam discuss a bit of construction and life. That's sweet, isn't it? That's from Nate 52. Oh, that is a fan. There's a long time listener. Yeah, I know, right? Yeah. It makes sense as well. We should rename it as like make construction more for bonus. So maybe we just we just more align it so we talk about the world's best aggression podcast. Yeah, well it already is that mate. We got another review here from Olivia 1111. Yeah. Now, there've only put a title, five star and the title of the review is proper banging podcast. Wow. And then the actual review, they've just put a full stop. So there you go, lad, like a mic drop, that full stop, isn't it? It's like someone just dropped the mic. Not a certain thing, just like boom. Yeah, I'm very surprised. We've got female listeners. I'm surprised we've got listeners at all, but predominantly our audience is male. So thanks for tuning in, Olivia. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for staying with us. Yeah. There we go. There we go. Fred's as fun as net fun as games. Nice. Two great reviews. That's what we like. A good review. Q me saying, please guys, leave a nice review on Spotify or Apple or Amazon or every listening. We'd really appreciate it. Don't forget to get your comments, messages coming in podcast at thebwinm.com and we will speak to you next week. Have been mate, 15 euros for a sandwich next to the beach. I believe this is like butter and some kind of unknown meat. I've been a twine. I've been airport so I've done been.