Extreme Engineering Episode Guide

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Episode Guide

Extreme Engineering: Season 6

  • Season 6 Episode 13: Hurricane-Proof Homes

    Amazing feats of engineering designed by some of the most audacious and innovative manufacturers in the industry are put to the test

  • Season 6 Episode 12: Mountain of Steel

    Tiff Needell presents a documentary series examining ambitious engineering schemes

  • Season 6 Episode 11: Oil Rigs

    Architect Danny Forster joins engineering crews in various roles, gaining a first-hand insight into the work they carry out

  • Season 6 Episode 10: Major League Stadium

    Amazing feats of engineering designed by some of the most audacious and innovative manufacturers in the industry are put to the test, in this case, the Major League Stadium

  • Season 6 Episode 9: Deepest Tunnel

    Amazing feats of engineering designed by some of the most audacious and innovative manufacturers in the industry are put to the test

  • Season 6 Episode 8: Biggest Casino

    Following the owners of the Venetian hotel and casino in Las Vegas as they try to construct an upscale addition to their existing property

  • Season 6 Episode 7: High Risk Tower

    Danny Forster gets an inside view of the building of the Trump Tower in Chicago, which is made entirely of reinforced concrete and officially the world's tallest formwork structure

  • Season 6 Episode 6: Coaster Build Off

    Danny Forster assists with the building of a new rollercoaster, and takes a ride on some of the newest 'scream machines' to uncover how they are pushing the limits of human physical endurance

  • Season 6 Episode 5: Battle Machines

    Danny Forster heads to Anniston Army Depot, where he attempts to re-assemble an Abrams tank, and helps build components for the machine before testing his handiwork on the firing range

  • Season 6 Episode 4: World's Tallest Skyscraper

    Architect Danny Forster gets a first-hand look at the frame of the Shanghai World Financial Centre, which, when completed, will be the tallest structure in the world

  • Season 6 Episode 3: Boot Camp

    Danny Forster spends a week with a firm of builders, and receives training on the site's heavy machinery and learning the daily routine, under the careful scrutiny of his sceptical colleagues

  • Season 6 Episode 2: Fault Zone Tunnel

    Inside one of the world's most dangerous tunnelling projects, as Danny Forster works with miners outside Los Angeles to dig two tunnels intended to supply water to California

  • Season 6 Episode 1: Super Fast Warship

    Danny Forster goes onboard a US Navy destroyer to meet the teams responsible for refuelling and working the radars. Plus, a visit to Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine

Extreme Engineering: Season 5 (2006)

Extreme Engineering: Season 4 (2006)

  • Season 4 Episode 6: Space Tower

    The construction of Madrid's 700ft-tall Space Tower, one of Spain's tallest buildings and the world's only skyscraper to boast a different floor plan on each level

  • Season 4 Episode 5: Saving New Orleans

    Danny Forster examines some of the engineering projects that are helping to rebuild New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

  • Season 4 Episode 4: Sakhalin Oil and Ice

    Danny Forster travels to the Russian island of Sakhalin, where the huge oil rigs and natural gas plants are being constructed to exploit the area's natural resources

  • Season 4 Episode 3: USS Bush Aircraft Carrier

    The construction of the world's largest aircraft carrier the USS George HW Bush - a floating city designed to serve as a combat airport, defending American interests around the world

  • Season 4 Episode 2: Malaysia Smart Tunnel

    The enormous drainage tunnel being created beneath the Malaysian city of Kuala Lumpur, built to deal with the devastating floods affecting the area

  • Season 4 Episode 1: Super-Stadium

    The Arizona Cardinals' showcase sports arena which, with its slide-out tray field, could be the shape of things to come in stadium design

Extreme Engineering: Season 3 (2005 - 2006)

Extreme Engineering: Season 2 (2004 - 2005)

  • Season 2 Episode 9: Excavators

    The design of a $10million custom-built excavator - a machine used to produce ferrous supplies for global export - for use in the world's largest opencast iron mine

  • Season 2 Episode 8: Looking into the Milau Bridge

    Danny Forster joins engineering crews working on the Millau Bridge, which is expected to be the highest in the world and will link Spain, Italy and France

  • Season 2 Episode 7: Cooper River Bridge

    The blueprints for the Cooper River project in Charleston, South Carolina, one of the longest cable-stay bridges in the world

  • Season 2 Episode 6: Off-Shore Oil Platform

    Engineers race to erect a huge rig in an effort to get ahead of their competitors in the race for lucrative deep-sea oil

  • Season 2 Episode 5: Iceland Tunnels

    Diggers congregate in Iceland's Eastern Highland to participate in an audacious engineering challenge, carving through miles of solid rock to create a tunnel

  • Season 2 Episode 4: Oakland Bay Bridge

    The construction of an earthquake-proof bridge to replace the heavily congested link between San Francisco, Oakland and the East Bay

  • Season 2 Episode 3: Container Ships

    Architect Danny Forster joins engineering crews in various roles, gaining a first-hand insight into the work they carry out

  • Season 2 Episode 2: Venice Floodgates

    How teams of designers and engineers constructed a series of steel barriers in Venice to prevent the encroaching Adriatic Sea from flooding the historic city

  • Season 2 Episode 1: Turning Torso

    The attempt to build the tallest skyscraper in northern Europe, designed to stand 600ft tall when completed. Engineers brave the freezing temperatures, dark winters and tempestuous winds of Malmo, Sweden, to get the building up on schedule - only to discover they must rethink their original plan

Extreme Engineering: Season 1 (2003 - 2004)

  • Season 1 Episode 10: Widening the Panama Canal

    Tiff Needell narrates a documentary looking at plans to update the Panama Canal. This magnificent waterway cuts through 50 miles of tropical jungle, allowing ships to travel easily from the Atlantic to the Pacific. However, time has passed this engineering marvel by - many modern supercargo ships are three times the size the canal can safely accommodate, so plans are in motion to widen the structure. The project faces all manner of environmental challenges, as well as leaving the canal closed to shipping for the duration of the construction. A Russian oil tanker is followed on its journey to showcase the remarkable nature of this structure, while members of the two companies vying to take on the project discuss their plans

  • Season 1 Episode 9: Boston's Big Dig

    Architect Danny Forster explores the transport system in Boston, Massachusetts, which features a multi-lane underground motorway and the widest cable-stayed bridge ever made

  • Season 1 Episode 8: Holland's Barrier to the Sea

    Holland's Delta Works and Measlandkering barriers, outstanding engineering feats designed to hold back three rivers and a raging sea

  • Season 1 Episode 7: Building Hong Kong's Airport

    Tiff Needell narrates the story behind the construction of Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport, an ambitious project that took seven years to complete. As the city grew, the original terminal became both inadequately small and potentially dangerous, requiring planes to navigate between skyscrapers to land, leaving engineers with no choice but to create an entirely new island and build the world's largest suspension bridge to link the structure to the city

  • Season 1 Episode 6: Tunneling Through the Alps

    Tiff Needell presents a documentary series examining ambitious engineering schemes, beginning with a multi-billion dollar project to build two railway tunnels running under the Swiss Alps. Stretching 21 and 31 miles, these two structures are the largest of their kind ever attempted, and when finished will allow passengers to travel from Milan to Zurich in less than two hours. The tunnels are dug by gigantic boring machines three storeys high and the length of four football fields, equipped with 30ft-wide drills capable of smashing through 130ft of rock a day. However, the project carries great environmental and safety risks, and extreme measures have to be taken to ensure nothing goes wrong

  • Season 1 Episode 5: Bridging the Bering Strait

    Proposals to build a bridge across the Bering Strait, carrying the promise of economic growth in both North America and Asia

  • Season 1 Episode 4: Building the Great Pyramid

    Myths surround the construction of the largest pyramid.

  • Season 1 Episode 3: Transatlantic Tunnel

    Architect Danny Forster explores prototypes of floating intercontinental tunnels, which 5,000 mph magnetically levitated trains could travel between New York, London and Paris

  • Season 1 Episode 2: Subways in America

    Architect Danny Forster joins engineering crews in various roles, gaining a first-hand insight into the work they carry out

  • Season 1 Episode 1: Tokyo's Sky City

    Proposals for a massive pyramid housing skyscrapers within its structure to be built over water, in a bid to ease overcrowding in Tokyo

Extreme Engineering:

  • Mountain of Steel

    Architect Danny Forster boards a helicopter in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, taking to the air for a bird's-eye view of the 140 square-mile complex that comprises the 2000 City of Culture and pilgrimage centre

  • The Quest for Water

    Exploring the human control of water, including dams, tunnels and the technology protecting Venice from floods

  • Turbo-Charged Boats

    Danny Forster joins a team rebuilding a racing boat in Florida, and takes part in a practice test