Discovery Channel - Megabuilders

The race is on as Brazil scrambles to build an iconic new stadium in time for the opening ceremonies of the Pan American Games. The futuristic Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro is over budget and more than a year behind schedule when team leaders Claudio Casares and Sancho Montandon take over the project. Their biggest challenge is the stadium’s most striking design feature – a unique 3,300-tonne floating roof. The team must build a complex arch system to support the roof from above and then remove the temporary supports to leave the roof seemingly suspended in mid-air. The stakes are huge for everyone involved in raising the roof to let the Games begin.

In a city known for building big, Hong Kong has set the standard for bridges around the world. And the Stonecutters Bridge is like none other. Stretching across the bustling Hong Kong harbour, it’s a spectacular stainless steel cable-stay bridge – the longest of its type in the world. It’s also the site for the biggest “heavy lift” ever attempted on a bridge of its height. This is a 15-billion dollar challenge that’s drawn a team of the top bridge builders in the world to Hong Kong and given them a shot at making bridge-building history.

On the island paradise of Tenerife, the Spanish island off the coast of West Africa, an enormous wave machine is being built at the future Siam Park. How long can faulty construction and unexpected delays push back the completion of this prize attraction?

Off the coast of Holland an ambitious wind-power project is underway: 60 giant windmills with blade spans as long as a football field are being constructed 14 miles out at sea. Crews battle rough waters and brutal winds to provide 125,000 homes with power.

With gold prices sky high, Barrick Gold Corporation orders the world’s biggest gold mining shovel for its massive open pit mine in Nevada. Now the clock is ticking. First, mining equipment factory manager Brenda Hanamann must weather one critical delay after another as her welders build the giant parts of the shovel. Then, a young assembly foreman must steer his crew through bad weather and tricky crane lifts to fit thousands of parts into one very big machine: the Mighty Shovel. Now the pressure’s really on. Every day over deadline is costing rich penalties to Barrick Gold.

How do you build the world’s largest snow and ice structure in the middle of a warm spell? With great difficulty! The construction of Sweden’s world famous ICEHOTEL is always a challenge because anything can go wrong… and often it does. You’d think that builders Ake Larrson and Arne Bergh could rely on cold weather 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. But they’re hit by a warm spell two weeks into their six week construction schedule. Megabuilders is on hand as Larrson and Bergh struggle against the elements to build their hotel out of 3,000 tonnes of ice and 30-thousand cubic metres of snow.

A team of shipbuilders in South Korea has only 10 weeks to assemble the hull of the first combination oil tanker-icebreaker they’ve ever built. Along the way, they struggle with delays caused by weather, language barriers and the difficulties of the vessel’s two innovative $10 million propeller steering units. With some of the most dramatic footage ever captured on Mega Builders, witness some of the largest and fastest crane lifts ever seen!