- 1 year ago
It’s a major construction project, aimed at doubling the width of the Suez Canal and deepening its main waterway. 500 million cubic meters of sand and soil have already been transported from all over the world. Using unprecedented 3D images, we reveal how the canal will be widened. We also look back to the original construction, back in 1859, to show how it first came to be built.
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00:00Over more than 190 kilometers, a stretch of blue cuts through the Egyptian desert.
00:07This is the Suez Canal, one of the greatest technical feats of all time.
00:15By separating Africa and Asia, this man-made route has transformed the world forever.
00:20Since its creation in the 19th century, it allows ships to pass directly from the Mediterranean Ocean through to the Red Sea.
00:27This is a considerable shortcut as they no longer have to go around Africa.
00:3318,000 ships take this route each year. They return on one of the busiest waterways in the world.
00:41Approximately 700 million tons of merchandise pass through here.
00:48These ships have become giants of the sea, weighing up to 240,000 tons and measuring up to 400 meters long.
00:57We will explain how the Suez Canal has evolved to meet the needs of the merchant navy.
01:07Suez, which is a structure of the 19th century, must adapt to its unimaginable flots, even for Jules Verne in the 19th century.
01:15These ships are so large that the canal has become too narrow, stopping the boats from passing one another.
01:21In 2014, a giant project is launched.
01:28A new 72-kilometer route rises from the sands, effectively creating a two-way navigation system.
01:36In less than a year, 500 million cubic meters of sand are removed from the site.
01:46This feat was carried out by an army of bulldozers and giant dredgers from all around the world.
01:55Using never-before-seen 3D images, we will discover how the vacuum cleaners of the sea really work.
02:04These machines are at the cutting edge of technology.
02:07Because of them, the canal is now 24 meters deep, compared to its original 8 meters.
02:14However, the technical means available in the 19th century are very different.
02:22Drilling into the isthmus of the Suez thus becomes an extreme challenge.
02:28In 1859, when Ferdinand de Lesseps launches this extraordinary project, the region is a complete no-man's land.
02:35Everything must be transported to the site, materials, fresh water and a workforce.
02:41Suez represents something exceptional, which will mark a fundamental step in the history of public works.
02:49The construction site experiences numerous crises and costs the lives of thousands of men.
02:54But under the momentum of the Industrial Revolution, everything changes.
02:58We will learn more about the machines that had to be invented in order to complete this astounding task.
03:04These machines of the 19th century have allowed us to build a construction without normes,
03:08and therefore build a real megastructure that is still used today.
03:13But when surging sands threaten its very existence, the canal must undergo constant maintenance.
03:19This proves a real challenge for this one-of-a-kind superstructure.
03:23Spanning from the initial works up to the present day, we go behind the scenes of the construction of the Suez Canal.
03:30For a longinda let's be in the possible work, which is the 1985 and had our project again.
03:34And the third Commissioner Fu tooling has to be a sanctuary that has with the
03:51In 2014, a construction site is set up in the middle of the Egyptian desert.
04:11This is the building site for the extension of the Suez Canal.
04:17The job is clearly immense.
04:18They need to dig a second waterway equal in volume to more than 200 large Cheops pyramids.
04:26A crazy yet ultimately successful gamble.
04:30The new Suez Canal is inaugurated with a great fanfare on 6th August 2015.
04:36It is an immense source of pride for the Egyptian authorities.
04:40Bigger, deeper, cleaner, the canal has been completely transformed.
04:44These images make their way around the world.
04:50Dozens of foreign politicians come to be a part of the occasion.
04:54The waterway represents a strategic focus for world maritime trade.
05:00The programme for the ceremony includes official speeches, a military parade and an aerial display.
05:06Pierre Cateau recalls that day.
05:12He was the site manager for a dredging company.
05:16On this occasion, we could see two ships crossing the official tribune for the first time in the Suez Canal Canal.
05:25Two ships passing side by side in the Suez Canal constitutes a revolutionary moment in the history of this megastructure.
05:36The transit duration for the ships shifts from 18 hours to 11 hours,
05:41pre-recorded air, the flailing speed is now on,
05:45which is not in time to leave with the city.
05:48The ships are now on a cruise, to a future,
05:51and the northern European transport it's more of a basic pressure that the ships will be.
05:54There is a normal chance to see two ships going on whenever they're on a cruise.
05:56But here are all the scientific cruise ships.
05:59As it is, we can see the future.
06:00The transit duration for the ships shifts from 18 hours to 11 hours,
06:0511 hours, and the waiting time is reduced from 11 hours to 3 hours. This is a considerable
06:10shortcut, ultimately allowing the maximum traffic capacity on the canal to double in
06:15size. By 2030, nearly 100 ships could take this route every day, but in order to reach
06:26this goal, an enormous amount of work is required. The construction site is divided into two
06:32sections. On one side, the creation of a new 35-kilometre waterway running parallel to
06:38the original canal. On the other side, the extension and deepening of the historic waterway
06:44over 37 kilometres by the Great Bitter Lake. The Egyptian army works on the first half of
06:50the construction site. They tackle enormous amounts of demolition work over an area situated
06:5524 metres above sea level. Their mission, level off the landform to prepare the site for the
07:01imminent deepening work for the new canal. An array of bulldozers, scrappers, trucks and
07:09skips cleared 250 million cubic metres of sand, earth and rocks. The area is then flooded so
07:16that the dredgers are able to float. The same quantity of sand still needs to be removed,
07:22this time from under the water. Machines at the forefront of technology, such as the cutter suction
07:33dredger, are enlisted for the task. To dig the canal, a different type of machine is used. The cutter suction dredge,
07:51with the help of an enormous pipe that reaches to the bottom of the canal, this machine can
07:57extract materials all while moving forward. At its head, there is a large suction device.
08:03The proportions of these floating giants are huge. They can measure over 200 metres long,
08:08the length of two football fields. The technology on board allows the dredgers to remove the materials
08:14through floating pipes. However, the quantities on this construction site are unprecedented. Thousands
08:26of cubic metres of sand run through the pipes and are then poured out several kilometres away in large
08:32storage areas in the middle of the Sinai Desert. In 2014, the Suez authorities appealed to two sets of
08:40dredging companies. The first is in charge of increasing the depth of the canal to 24 metres.
08:46The second must extend the existing waterway, all while respecting the same depth. A particular constraint
08:52challenges this section of the work. The task must be completed without interrupting the general navigation.
08:58The company for which Pierre Cateau works participated in the dredging of the second zone.
09:10We were in charge of a colossal project, a pharaonic project, which was a very important challenge
09:16on the logistics plan, on the organisational point of view.
09:20The head of the Suez Canal authority had originally asked for a five-year period to successfully carry
09:26out this incredible task. Nevertheless, he would only be given a year in which to do it. The time
09:32constraint would constitute a significant challenge for this record-breaking construction site.
09:40The next obstacle, the transportation of the materials and the personnel.
09:44In the past few months, a huge number of drags have been mobilised in the whole world.
09:52We're talking about about 40 drags. In addition to this material, a very large number of
09:57remorqueurs, guests, conduits, pontons have been mobilised on the project. The personnel
10:04that is employed on this kind of road comes from the four corners of the planet. We had 28 nationalities on our road.
10:10The country must spend more than 7 billion euros. The authorities thus rely on a national momentum
10:20and appeal for donations. The strategy is successful as 80 percent of the project would be financed by
10:26the Egyptian population all in just a few days. The work on the new Suez Canal is added to a long
10:36series of construction sites on the waterway that have been underway since its creation in the 19th
10:41century. The construction history of this megastructure dates back more than a century and a half.
10:51When the first engineers arrive at the Isthmus of the Suez, they discover a suitable environment for
10:56the implementation of a canal despite its location in a completely isolated region.
11:01The Sinai, measuring 60,000 square kilometres, is one of the driest deserts in the world. However,
11:08nothing can shake the determination of the canal explorers.
11:13The official start of construction to connect the two seas is set for the 25th of April 1859,
11:20but the workers are in for a hellish experience.
11:23Thierry Chambol has supervised numerous maritime works throughout his career. As an engineer,
11:33he describes the working conditions of the time.
11:35Thierry Chambol is working with water up to the neck. With a small tool, they cut off the ground
11:44and pass them to the neighbors. When they pass them to the neighbors, they make a chain and they
11:50will make 400,000 m3 of bled through this technique. And we feel that this is not a technique that
11:59could be prolonged for a long time.
12:01The site is in desperate need of a greater workforce. The project is in danger. But where could they
12:07find more workers willing to dig the canal? The Egyptian authorities propose to reinstate
12:12the forced labour scheme.
12:17Caroline Piquet is a senior lecturer at the Sorbonne. She wrote a reference work on the history of the Suez Canal.
12:24The Corvette is a system used by the Viceroy in Egypt to maintain the canals.
12:32So many Egyptian peasants, which we call the Fela, have contributed to this cooperation.
12:38Nearly 400,000 labourers from all over Egypt are forced to dig the canal in extreme conditions.
12:46The construction site would cost the lives of thousands of them.
12:48The isolation of the site, situated in a desert far from any supplies and equipment,
12:55quickly proves to be a problem. Groups of people are forced to deliver everything to the site.
13:02Some of the materials, such as wood or large rocks, are entirely missing from the area.
13:07In need of a solution to facilitate the transportation of the materials,
13:27the managers of the construction site decide to build a small supply canal.
13:31At 50 metres long and 2 metres deep, the supply canal is a reduced scale model of the final canal.
13:40The workers first carry out the digging in dry conditions. Once they reach a certain depth,
13:45water is poured in so that the dredgers can float while extending and deepening the waterway.
13:50The excavated material is used to fill in the banks.
13:5378 dredgers are built specifically for the Suez Canal construction site.
14:04This particular machine is characterised by a central well
14:07that allows a bucket chain to descend down to its main body.
14:16The lowest bucket strikes the bottom, fills up and then ascends to pour its contents into the barges.
14:22The bucket dredger is at the origin of a series of dredging machines.
14:29Like the backhoe dipper excavator. This powerful machine was used on the construction site of the
14:35new Suez Canal. Its three enormous stakes are used to stabilise the pontoon so that the excavator can
14:42stand on top. The shovel digs into the canal bed and unloads the excavated material into a barge
14:48moored next to the dredger. It can work on any type of soil. This engine corresponds perfectly with the
14:54type of rocks in the region, essentially sand and clay.
15:03Since the drilling work for the canal started in 1859, the engineers have been asking themselves
15:09how will these soils react when they are put under water.
15:14We go to a state-of-the-art laboratory at the Ecole des Pants Paris-Tec. Here we meet Dr Gabeslou,
15:19a specialist in geotechnical engineering. Initially the project sought to establish an embankment with
15:24an incline of 26 degrees. Nevertheless, due to the instability of the soil when placed under water,
15:30their original plans would be turned upside down. On this reduced scale model of the Suez Canal,
15:44the specialist reproduces the same slopes as those originally imagined by the engineers at the time.
15:50We create more and more unstable zones in contact with the water, and the fence will
15:56seek a new state of balance with a wet fence. Once the canal fills with water, the embankment
16:03gradient softens. Some walls even collapse. Consequently, the basin fills with sand.
16:15In the 19th century, the engineers decide to let their banks slope naturally.
16:19However, this means that they need to dig even deeper in order to reach the appropriate depth.
16:26During construction, traffic on the future canal is intense. Convoys of barges towed by men and
16:31animals are used to transport the materials. The installation of an additional supply canal
16:36quickly begins. Most importantly, this will allow fresh water to be delivered to the construction site.
16:42This is a rare product in the desert region, but it is indispensable for such work.
16:49Thanks to the canal, water from the Nile is transported to the Isthmus from Zagazigh to Ismailia,
16:57joining onto the Suez thereafter. The fresh water only arrives later to Port Said,
17:02first through canalisation and then through an extension of the waterway.
17:06The fresh water canal follows the trace of a much older waterway. Since the dawn of time,
17:14men have been trying to cross the Egyptian desert by boat.
17:16For centuries, the world seaborne trade has been using an entirely different route.
17:42The solution in connecting Europe and Asia lies in travelling to Egypt to unload the cargo.
17:50The transport then continues on land. However, this is not the end. When the groups reach the
17:56Red Sea, the goods are loaded onto a second ship for the rest of the trip. A real expedition.
18:01A new waterway would only be established by the Portuguese at the end of the 15th century.
18:06This new waterway would merge the Oriental borders together, effectively bypassing Africa.
18:13This voyage lasts several months.
18:18Nearly 300 years later, a French emperor reinstates the idea of drilling into the Isthmus of the Suez.
18:24Napoleon Bonaparte's engineers conclude that there are too many technical obstacles,
18:40so the project ultimately falls into oblivion.
18:44In the middle of the 19th century, one French diplomat decides to persevere with this crazy dream.
18:50His name is Ferdinand de Lesseps.
18:55For Arnaud Ramier de Fortenier, this man would change the face of the world.
18:59This extraordinary character would ultimately shape the drilling project of the Isthmus of the Suez.
19:09In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps gets the opportunity of a lifetime when his father was born.
19:16Mohamed Saïd Pacha comes into power. They got to know each other when the French diplomat was working in Egypt.
19:34Ferdinand de Lesseps gains the exclusive power to dig a canal between the two oceans.
19:49They would have the right to exploit it for 99 years.
19:52But on his construction site, the work doesn't seem to progress.
19:55After two years, the workers don't succeed in removing the required amounts of sand to finish the canal.
20:02They lack the necessary machinery.
20:04On the construction site for the new canal, it took less than two months to remove the same amount of material.
20:23In a century and a half, the quality of the dredgers has evolved considerably.
20:37The incredible volume of material excavated in the most recent extension project is proof of this.
20:44The widening of the Suez canal represents 500 million m3, 250 million m3 per dragage in the past 10 months.
20:51In fact, we find a more than 100% factor between the capacity of excavation today and that of the time.
20:59But in order to reach the fixed excavation objectives, the construction site required the mobilisation of 75% of the existing dredgers,
21:07which amounted to approximately 40 machines from all over the world.
21:13All these dragues work 24 hours on 24 and 7 days on 7,
21:17and that we can do the work in the minimum of the time possible.
21:21The time limit was certainly extremely important on this project.
21:26Nowadays, the best dredgers are fitted with hydraulic pumps that inject water in order to extract the sediments.
21:32In his time, Ferdinand de Lesseps would have loved to work with such effective machines,
21:42even if they had only arrived on the Suez canal after the 1930s.
21:46Nowadays, with unimaginable capacities, these machines have facilitated the deepening of the Suez canal.
22:06The key feature of the cutter suction dredge is that it can move and work at the same time.
22:16This was an excellent advantage on the construction site of the new Suez canal,
22:21where tasks sometimes had to be carried out without interrupting general navigation.
22:25To find out how this machine works, we climb aboard one of these floating giants.
22:34This ship works on maintaining the access channel at the port of Antwerp.
22:38Denis Hennebert is its engineer.
22:40The dredge drag head is the large tube trailing across the length of the hull that links onto the pumping system.
22:53Here, it measures around 50 meters. Its head resembles that of a giant steel monster.
22:58This is the crepine, the drag head. This is the place where the materials are aspirated from the bottom.
23:06We have several elements. We see that this crepine is equipped with a kind of dents.
23:11This is what allows the soil to make sure that the materials are repoussing towards the crepine.
23:16And the aspiration, which is created by the pump, is at this level of 10.000 m3.
23:21So this capacity of aspiration, mixed with the impact of the dents that grattent the soil,
23:26and also the injections of water that allows us to put in suspension these materials,
23:31to make sure that we have an impressive amount of materials that are directly sent to the pipe.
23:39The filter works with the help of a water injection system.
23:43It has a mobile head. This way, it can adapt to fit the incline of the dredging area.
23:48The first water injection sets the materials in motion.
23:51Then, with assistance from the teeth, a second injection totally decomposes the sediments.
24:01The command post for the dredged drag head is located in the control tower.
24:09The main technician works with several screens.
24:12These allow him to get an overall view of the depth of the zone,
24:15the performance of the device, as well as an indication of the amount it has dredged.
24:24Be it mud, sand or stones, the collected sediments are all stocked on board in the centre of the vessel.
24:31The largest reservoirs can reach a colossal capacity of up to 45,000 cubic metres,
24:37the equivalent to 12 Olympic swimming pools.
24:45Once the well is full, the dredged drag head is pulled up and the ship moves to the excavation area.
24:50The shutters situated at the bottom of the hold help to unload the excavated material into the clearing zone.
25:08This technique is known as piling.
25:10As you can see, it's the water that we pump, the water that allows us to rinse the water.
25:18It allows us to ensure that all the sediments are well evacuated to the appropriate place.
25:24An alternative clearing system consists in forcing the material through a pipe.
25:40The excavated material can then be transported several kilometres away
25:44through the means of either a floating or underground piping system.
25:48These two methods were used on the new Suez Canal construction site.
25:52A large piling zone was set up to the west of the Great Bitter Lake.
25:56The materials were removed via the piping system
25:58and unloaded into large hollow areas in the heart of the Sinai Desert.
26:03The final method employed for removing dredged materials is known as rainbowing.
26:10This is normally used to beach nourishment.
26:16In the 19th century, the excavation of rubble from what will be the future canal is a big problem.
26:22In 1864, before the influx of machines, the construction site confronts a serious crisis.
26:29The forced labour scheme, authorising the use of Egyptian peasants for the work, is abolished.
26:40At this time, the Industrial Revolution in Europe is in full swing.
26:43The engineers thus try to invent new machines to keep the construction site going.
26:49Lavalier Industries develop long gangways to unload the excavated material directly from the dredgers.
26:55This had never been done before.
26:57The dredger scoops mud up from the bottom of the water in what will be the future canal.
27:02It then unloads the excavated material into a gutter that can measure up to 70 metres long.
27:08A pump sends jets of water to dissolve the extracted matter and pushes it towards the exit.
27:14A horizontal hinge, situated at the junction of the dredger, helps to modify the incline of the gangway.
27:20A metallic trellis, that rests on an iron barge, assures the machine stability.
27:27This innovation changes the construction site for good.
27:31The canal progresses at an astounding speed, but in the areas where the banks are more highly elevated, the dredger with the long gangway is destabilised.
27:38Several accidents are accounted for.
27:42An alternative machine is developed.
27:45This engine, known as the lift, permits the excavation of the materials directly from the barge.
27:50We have a meeting with Lionel Dufault. He is the collections manager at the Museum of Arts and Trades.
27:56The name of all these machines is the use of the gas machine.
28:03The gas machine is known since the end of the 18th century.
28:06It was rather designed to the exhaust, that is to pump the infiltration of water in the mines.
28:13And at the end of the 18th century, we will modify the gas machine to make a machine that provides the engine force to animate other machines.
28:23Consequently, the steam engine shifts to the railway, in locomotives, and onto water on board ships.
28:31It is also used in workshops or construction sites for public works, as a means to support the other machines.
28:37The locomotive is a mobile machine.
28:40We place it and install it where we need it.
28:43It includes a hose, which we see here, which we can see in the main body.
28:48It is a hose that we feed with fuel, generally carbon or oil.
28:53And this gas machine will provide a force, under pressure, which will be used to move the steering wheel.
29:01We will attach a courier, which will animate other machines.
29:06On the train of Suez, locomotives were used to animate crues or pumps, for example.
29:12The locomotives are also used to operate pumps for the long gangways.
29:16The dredgers, on the other hand, use their own steam engine.
29:20In Europe, a real enthusiasm is generated around the technical revolutions established on the construction site.
29:25The Suez Canal Company has been presented at the Universal Exposition Universelle of Paris in 1867.
29:35It is a real pride among French engineers and diplomats.
29:40It is also among the engineers and the commerce chambers.
29:43The Suez Canal Company holds several conferences in front of a giant model of the project that is exhibited during the event.
29:51Along with this technical revolution, a series of innovations in all domains soon follows.
29:56Notably, in Port Said, the engineers face a typically insurmountable problem.
30:04There aren't enough stone quarries in the region to build the harbour jetties.
30:08One entrepreneur suggests that they build artificial blocks with a base made of sand and lime.
30:1430,000 blocks are made.
30:16Another building site develops within the Suez Canal construction site.
30:19The Suez Canal Company will create an extraordinary construction of blocks, 20 tons of blocks.
30:30It will create a real factory factory of blocks.
30:34There are thousands and thousands of blocks.
30:36They will dry for about a month.
30:39We will then carry them in the sea.
30:42We will carry them in the sea with a huge quarrel.
30:45We will carry them in place to build the dig.
30:52This would be the first manufacturing site for artificial blocks in history.
30:57The fabrication of the blocks would still require years of further development
31:01and the blocks used for the jetties would need to be replaced on a regular basis.
31:05Another section of the construction site is deemed problematic for the work required in the elevated areas of the site.
31:12The evacuation of the desblés from the bottom of the fountain to the natural reliefs is a difficult problem.
31:20First, there is a considerable effort to pull the wagons on the larger lines.
31:27Then, the alignment of the natural reliefs is obviously difficult.
31:32There is a sort of a gap.
31:33A ramp system is established along the length of the slope.
31:37At the bottom of the cavity, the workers dig the future canal.
31:41The excavated materials are loaded into small carts and connected to a railway track.
31:46Towed by steam winches, they ascend the slope in order to reach the disposal site.
31:51Another challenge for both the past construction site and the latest one is the difficult management of the rocky banks.
32:03To solve this problem, there is a machine that has been specially adapted to work on this type of land.
32:08It is known as the cutter suction dredger.
32:13This giant of the sea can measure up to 150 metres long and 30 metres wide.
32:19The dredger gets into position and fixes itself into the ground by using its large stakes.
32:25It then moves around this axis with the help of its lateral winches linked to giant anchors.
32:31The cutter head is at the front of the vessel.
32:33This enormous drill can reach up to 3 metres in diameter.
32:38Its mission? Destroy the rocks, even the hardest one, under the water and on the banks.
32:48This giant engine is controlled from a steering cabin equipped with the latest technology.
32:54Dredgers, such as the IBN Batuta, are capable of positioning themselves with incredible precision in order to carry out their demolition work.
33:04The amount of rubble produced is truly phenomenal.
33:07Rocks, sand, mud, clay, all of the materials are sucked up through hydraulic pumps and then pushed back into the floating pipes and tubes laid out on the shore.
33:19When it is possible to unload the excavated material into an underwater zone, the pipe connected to the cutter head is tied to a raft equipped with a continuous spreading system.
33:29As an alternative option, the excavated materials are unloaded onto barges that are moored to the dredger.
33:38Once they reach the disposal site, the hull splits in two in order to get rid of the cargo.
33:43In total, 25 cutter suction dredgers were utilised on the construction site for the new Suez Canal. This had never been seen before.
33:53One of the first drags that we have mobilised on this project was the drag d'Artagnan, which is the Pavilion Francais.
34:00It has been mobilised since a project that happened in Russia, the peninsula of Yamal.
34:05With a horsepower of 38,000, it is one of the most powerful dredgers in the world.
34:11During the 19th century, the workers also face several rocky obstacles while developing the future canal.
34:18Destroying the rocks requires herculean strength.
34:21A new machine thus piques the interest of the Suez Company to help them overcome this difficult area.
34:26And so we are going to use the Couvreux Excavator, which is a machine that is capable of extracting the rocks in dry,
34:35in zones that have not been inundated.
34:38Nicknamed the steam shovel, nearly 16 Couvreux excavators are built especially for the Suez construction site.
34:45The excavator moves on rails positioned along the future canal and gradually widen it.
34:50In the space of three years, it assists in the removal of 9 million cubic metres of land.
34:55A record.
34:59Its specially formed buckets allow it to extract a significant amount of rock before ascending back up to the excavator.
35:08The extracted matter is taken away in small carts.
35:12Once they are all loaded, a locomotive takes them to the disposal site.
35:16Little by little, the railway line becomes a normal part of the construction site.
35:20It helps not only with the transportation of the material,
35:23but with the transportation of the staff as well.
35:26These temporary railway lines are constructed and deconstructed, as is necessary for excavation.
35:32But even the Couvreux excavator does not always succeed in destroying the rocks.
35:37In 1869, two months before the inauguration of the Suez Canal, rocky banks are discovered in the waterway at a depth of 4 metres,
35:47when in reality, the canal should be 8 metres deep.
35:50So there is a pressure on the engineers and workers, which is extraordinary.
35:57And this under-marine destruction, we do not know very well.
36:02So we will immerge four to five litres of powder,
36:06together with a plastic bag,
36:10which contains the cord that we will allume on the surface
36:14to make these bottles shine on the surface of the rock.
36:19The aim is to create a sufficient passageway for the ships of the time,
36:23in terms of the submerged portion of the vessel.
36:26This is what is known as the draft.
36:28The passage is completed in the final weeks of the construction site.
36:32The Pelluz, which is the ship of the Imperial Messagerie Company,
36:37makes 5 metres of tirandos.
36:39It passes just.
36:41Some ships are tall at the time of the inauguration.
36:44For others, we have moved the ship's charge of the ship from the back to the front,
36:48so that their tirandos at the back are a little less strong.
36:51But we realize the extraordinary pressure that exists.
36:55So we give the price to the workers,
36:57we lift the night.
36:58It is an incredible project that exists in order to achieve the results.
37:04After ten years of labour, the Suez Canal finally becomes a reality.
37:08The Red Sea and the Mediterranean Ocean join together.
37:12The waterway measures 164 kilometres in total.
37:16The route now joins the main cities of the Isthmus together.
37:19Port Said on the Mediterranean Ocean,
37:22Ismailia in the middle,
37:23and finally Suez at the mouth of the Gulf by the Red Sea.
37:30On 17 November 1869,
37:33the Suez Canal is inaugurated.
37:36It is an international event.
37:38Ferdinand de Lesseps has made the pharaoh's dream a reality.
37:42Open to all nations,
37:44the Suez Canal changes the world seaborne trade forever.
37:47From this point onwards, the journey between Europe and the Indies is cut in half.
37:58To get from Marseille to Bombay,
38:00the original distance around Africa was more than 19,000 kilometres.
38:05With the Suez Canal, it amounts to almost 8,000 kilometres.
38:09This is a considerable shortcut.
38:10Originally, two to three months of navigation via the Cape of Good Hope would have been the norm
38:16when travelling between these two ports.
38:19By passing through the Isthmus, the journey is reduced to a single month.
38:26At the beginning of the 20th century,
38:28the Suez Canal Company acquires an industrial site,
38:32the General Workshops situated in Port Fuad.
38:35The naval construction site is thus at the height of technology.
38:38The workshops fabricate the company equipment.
38:42More than a thousand individuals work there.
38:47Nevertheless, during its first years of operation,
38:50the Canal Maintenance Service faces an unexpected hitch.
38:54The backflow created by the passing of the ships damages the embankments.
38:57There are several methods that are used.
39:01There are methods of pere, of enrochement.
39:04There are methods of pere, of enrochement.
39:05There are methods of pere, of ataca, in the near Suez.
39:09There are maçonnical revêtements.
39:11The results are never very satisfying.
39:13The boats fall regularly.
39:15And the company must refer to more scientific research,
39:18in France, of hydraulic laboratories.
39:21Situated close to Grenoble, this hydraulic laboratory is still operating today.
39:27Luc Am is the Maritime Technical Director.
39:30Here they study all sorts of water-related developments on smaller scale models.
39:37When the Suez Canal Company contacts them in the middle of the 20th century,
39:40the waterway is in bad shape.
39:45About 120 km of berges were seriously degraded.
39:50At the time, the estimates, at the beginning of the 1950s,
39:52were about 1,000,000 francs per year's cost of repair.
39:57The laboratory recreates a section of the Suez Canal.
40:01A smaller scale model of the vessel is first towed through,
40:04and later self-propelled.
40:05You have to imagine that these ships were filled with two-thirds of the canal,
40:11for the bigger ones.
40:13And so there was no longer water.
40:15There was a resistance to the advancement.
40:18The ships were not able to get the right speed.
40:20It created very strong currents of several meters per second.
40:24The studies focus on trying to understand this resistance,
40:27so as to modify the shape of the hulls in the ships.
40:30The research proves so innovative that it quickly captures the attention
40:33of various oil companies.
40:36The models improve.
40:37The final result, the ships move with greater ease through the water,
40:41and the traffic of the canal is optimised.
40:44In spite of all these efforts to maintain the waterway,
40:47further extension work quickly becomes inevitable.
40:50The Suez Canal must continuously adapt to the ever-evolving shapes of new ships.
40:56We find out more at the National Navy Museum.
40:59The size of the ships explodes after the Second World War,
41:03in a gigantism course that, for now, nothing has stopped.
41:08We build at a size that we think is reasonable compared to the state of the fleet,
41:12but we are already in a hurry compared to the structures,
41:16the ships that are built.
41:18Of course, Suez, which is an infrastructure of the 19th,
41:19which is a mega-structure,
41:23but it must adapt to its totally unimaginable ships,
41:28even for Jules Verne in the 19th century.
41:30In 1950, 40,000-ton ships are outdated.
41:34Their proportions are nothing in comparison to the other vessels of the time,
41:38such as the Pelouse.
41:40With its 2,000 tons, the ship owned by the Imperial Maritime Shipping Company
41:43is one of the first to have travelled on the Suez Canal.
41:47The waterway also has to make it through the 20th century,
41:50with all of its conflict.
41:52On 26 July 1956, Colonel Nasser gives a momentous speech in front of a crowd of Egyptians.
41:59He announces the nationalisation of the Suez Canal.
42:03The Western powers react to this.
42:04The United Kingdom, France and Israel launch a military operation that ultimately ends in failure.
42:11However, navigation on the canal is stopped for almost five months.
42:15The canal deteriorates.
42:22With the help of the UN, Egypt repairs and modernises the canal.
42:28With its depth increased to 14 metres,
42:30the waterway can now handle ships with an 11 metre draft.
42:37In 1967, a new crisis shakes the region.
42:41The Six Day War.
42:45Along with other Arab countries, Egypt battles against Israel.
42:50The Suez Canal turns into a war zone.
42:53Sunken ships and mines obstruct the navigation.
42:56The basin fills with sand and the embankments collapse.
42:58The waterway is closed down.
43:03The closure of the Suez Canal after the Six Days War is a real catastrophe.
43:08Since the Suez Canal has not been maintained for eight years,
43:12and when it is reopened in 1975, it is no longer adapted to the petrol marine.
43:17Before the war, it has received about 80% of the merchant ships.
43:21After the war, it has reached about 80% of the merchant ships.
43:25After the war, it has reached about one third.
43:27So it is a huge loss of customers.
43:30Most of the soldiers have taken the path of the Afrikan border.
43:33And in order to rentabilise the parcours, we have built boats that exceed 200,000 tonnes.
43:42So they are no longer adapted to the Suez Canal.
43:45The Egyptian authorities must act.
43:47So with the help of the international community, they launch a rehabilitation and modernisation programme for the canal.
43:54Thereafter, the canal doubles in size at four separate points to allow the ships to pass one another.
44:00Port Said and Cabret, both of which have been part of the site since 1955, join onto the Bala Bypass.
44:06Ultimately, a new bypass at the Great Bitter Lake spans over a five-kilometre distance.
44:13Similarly to motorway junctions, these bypasses allow the ships to travel in both directions.
44:21Thanks to these new dimensions, the canal can withstand ships weighing up to 150,000 tonnes.
44:28These ships have turned into giants of the sea that need to be controlled.
44:32At Port Revel Ship Handling Centre, in Isère, pilots and captains learn how to manoeuvre the ships with the help of small-scale models.
44:43These mini-liners, container ships, ferries and tankers, all about a dozen metres long, can hold up to two people.
44:50On this five-hectare lake, all sorts of maritime infrastructures have been recreated, including a section of the Suez Canal.
44:57Jean-Paul Jeanjean is an instructor. This morning, he is training two interns to attempt the bypass on the Suez Canal.
45:07This manoeuvre is normally forbidden.
45:10Here, potential errors can be pushed beyond the security limits. It is a good way to test the ship's reactions.
45:15On the ships, in general, when there is not enough space, or when the ships are too close to each other, they take a risk.
45:26There are forces that develop and make the ships either to pull or to push.
45:29And if it's in a canal, it's more narrow. It can give a change of involuntary direction that the captain or the pilot cannot predict.
45:41And so, it's dangerous.
45:42The two ships are parallel. The two rear ships are close, very close.
45:52And here, the risk is that Grenoble will escape.
45:56This is a tenfold hazard as maritime infrastructures are often overcrowded.
46:00But how can you manoeuvre ships that are continuously increasing in speed and size, yet lack in power?
46:05So, the classic problems of big ships in the canals, due to the inertia of ships, are more and more difficult to maneuver.
46:16It means that they have to anticipate all their reactions.
46:19And to anticipate their reactions, they have to know them.
46:22And to know the reactions of the profile of the canal, for example, or the ports in which they reach.
46:28Captains and pilots are now learning how to manoeuvre giant ships on the Suez Canal that can weigh up to 240,000 tonnes.
46:37After the development of the two-way navigation system, the draft limit is increased to more than 20 metres.
46:45The canal is even at the origin of the measurement unit, known as the Suez Max.
46:50This unit determines the maximum dimensions possible for a ship to be able to pass through the megastructure.
46:55This is a constraint for certain ship owners. Eric Banel is their representative in France.
47:01It's very difficult to imagine a ship that can't cross the Suez Canal.
47:07The maximum size of the ships for the Suez Canal is the maximum size for a large part of the world's maritime fleet.
47:16That's why we call these ships the Suez Max.
47:19One of the main objectives of the extension work was to adapt the waterway to match the new dimensions of the merchant navy.
47:26However, this risked the disqualification of the canal.
47:29Even now, it is still one of the most used waterways in the world.
47:32Today, we have about 50 ships per day on the Suez Canal.
47:37The objective is, with the doubling of the canal, by the Egyptian authorities and a hundred ships.
47:42The Suez Canal constitutes a strategic passageway for maritime carriers.
47:47The waterway drains out almost 8% of global traffic.
47:51It also represents an enormous economic stake for the Egyptian authorities.
47:55Egypt thus has every interest to keep investing in its megastructure.
48:22Back at the Suez Canal, we climb on board a container ship.
48:29ADM, boat alongside.
48:32Yeah, boat alongside.
48:36Max is the captain.
48:38We are at the moment proceeding northbound in the Suez Canal.
48:43Here, the navigation laws are strict.
48:46Direction and speed must be constantly controlled in order to avoid crashing into another ship.
48:50Yeah, it's going smooth. No problems here.
48:58Slow ahead. Okay.
49:00A pilot from the Suez Canal authority advises the captain on which manoeuvres to pursue.
49:04This is a compulsory measure.
49:09It's quite important to navigate correctly here in the canal because, as you can see, there is not much room on each side of the vessel.
49:16This is no ordinary day for the captain and his crew. This is the first time they are passing through the new Suez Canal.
49:23I've been here approximately 40 times, but today it's special that we will be turning to starboard into the new canal instead of turning to port into the old one.
49:35It is a special moment in the captain's career.
49:37Of course, it's special every time when you do something first time. It will also be special now, too, when we get to the approach to the new channel.
49:49Little by little, the landscape changes.
49:51Now, it's quite amazing how much sand they really have digged out of this canal. We have mountains both sides now. It's incredible.
50:03The Suez Canal, the gem of the industrial world, continues to blow us away with its innovations.
50:15Now, as a two-way navigation system, the megastructure must overcome another challenge, namely, how to cross it.
50:21The new Suez Canal has rendered certain infrastructures obsolete, such as the El Ferdin Railway Bridge. At 340 metres, it was the longest swing bridge in the world. Now, it no longer serves any purpose.
50:35To cross over the dual waterway and make the Sinai region more accessible, several infrastructures will take shape. A notable addition to the programme, the construction of two motorway tunnels beneath the Suez Canal near Port Said.
50:52This is an entirely new challenge, as it involves drilling a double tube measuring nearly four kilometres long. A subsequent railway tunnel may even accompany this technical feat.
51:02Constantly changing in size, depth and modernity, the Suez Canal is in a state of perpetuity.
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