The Thames Barrier must never fail. Here's why it doesn't.
The Thames Barrier is a wonder of engineering. If it fails, then London floods. Here's how the engineers there make sure it doesn't fail. More about the Thames Barrier: www.gov.uk/guidance/the-thame...
Producer/Director: Cambria Bailey-Jones
Editor: Michelle Martin
Camera Operator: Jamie MacLeod
Drone Director: Alex Glynn
Drone Team: Ian Hunter, Tim Hubbard
Runner: Rebecca Johnson
Colourist: Jamie MacLeod
Sound Design: Dan Pugsley
Executive Producer: Guy Larsen
A Penny4 Production: www.penny4.co.uk
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Thanks so much to all the Thames Barrier team: it was an incredible privilege to be able to film there. And thanks also to the production and drone teams: the Barrier is next to London City Airport, so there's a lot of paperwork and approvals required to fly there!
And thank you for a great video as always!
GREAT VIDEO
Thanks for doing all the paperwork and complicated back and forth which enables you to bring us these fascinating videos from random interesting places!
Thanks indeed!
Drone paperwork was worth it! It didn't all come together for me until I saw the gates closing in the final sped-up shot.
The amount of waterway-control systems in parts of northern Europe that are essential to a city's survival is mind-boggling.
I uploaded my face reveal.
And to think, it's all controlled by a single Raspberry Pi CM4 😀
We like to beat nature into submission.
That’s why ocean level rising is so dangerous
@@Arkantos117 we have to, or many people would die
The main lesson of the Thames Barrier is this: When you're working against nature, there's no such thing as "over-engineered."
Ummmmm and the asteroid belt, Lunay?
@@andyharpist2938 Does the asteroid belt exist outside of nature?
@@CarlGorn my point was that at any moment we could all be wiped out by cosmic nature and no amount of engineering would work against that
@@andyharpist2938 Well, none that we currently have in play, at least. With enough material, expertise, and labor hours, humanity could deploy a network of laser-based detection/targeting satellites to give us as advanced warning as possible of an incoming asteroid. And that targeting information could then be used to guide fields of motorized mirrors into reflecting a concentrated beam of sunlight with a dynamic focal point at the incoming asteroid, burning away much of its mass before it hits atmosphere. Of course, the expense would be hard for any government to justify to their people, considering how unlikely the odds are of such an event happening.
@@CarlGorn I see. Sort of like converting one big rock into a trillion house-sized missiles
I like this kind of projects, because funding conversations goes like this: "but that's too expensive" - government "it'll be more if it fails" - engineers after that no conversations on this topic were heard ever again.
If it was a private company the argument would end with "that's not my problem by them". Just like in Brazil the Vale company operated under state ownership for almost 56 years, after privatized they had at least a dozen "accidents" in 25 years, some VERY catastrophic.
The government isn't evil -- it's the country's order, with your neighbors and other acquaintances working in government positions. I don't know why people act like the government is what's always in the way. Worst part, is that you just wrote government -- it's imprecise. No one knows what you're talking about, and it's alright because the average guy has no idea on what he's talking about. It's why people work in groups, and it's why schools worldwide are about social and financial grades, rather than intellectual.
Projects like these" aren't just small projects; they're about the safety of the city (please don't make jokes about safety).
As the saying goes, "If you think safety is expensive, try an accident"!
@@douglhorvath that’s wrong
Let me tell you, as a German living near the Ahrtal which suffered massive floods in summer of 2021, buildings will not only be unusable for weeks. It will take months to years to rebuild everything. In December, I drove through the nearby area again and it still looks like a warzone. And it was just a river just shy of 20m in width. I do not want to imagine what happens if the river Thames goes over its banks. It's a good thing that these barriers are maintained well and looked after.
I hope you and your loved ones are allright, love from lower saxony :)
Stolberg sieht auch noch aus wie Kriegsgebiet... Echt schlimm das
There are no banks, tidal walls both sides of the river were also built 20 miles all the way down to the estuary.
@@jamesmorris3123 those walls are the banks...
German compatriot, I remember watching a documentary years ago that reported a super-flood before the barrier was built in the course of the Thames, and London was only spared because the levees on the river banks downstream broke in a way you see in Reports of the Mississippi, the father of all rivers, would see where expanses of the order of half Germany are submerged.
It would be great to make a series about this topic: systems that are not allowed to fail.
Awesome idea
Would be very interesting!
Normally I would say “power grids”, but Texas screwed us over yet again with that one.
Would love a series like this!!!
...which failed.
I love the protection systems where the question of "what if they're overwhelmed" is entirely overshadowed by "we'll have bigger problems at that point"
It's scarily logical
The water would be going around the barrier just as easily as over it at that point.
@@4TheRecord Precisely. If it failed, the city was already underwater from other sources than just the inrush from the Thames.
The same energy as asking the bomb defusal guy "how are you so calm when defusing bombs?" "Either I get it right, or it's not my problem anymore"
Its like earthquakes here in California. Hospitals are built to not fall in a quake, and anything big enough to shake them off their beams would have already leveled everything else into unrecognizable rubble.
This reminds me of a post-apocalypse series I once read set in London. Apparently the author didn’t know that the Thames would’ve flooded London without the floodgates being operated for multiple years. We’re unaware of so much infrastructure that keeps us alive.
To be fair to the author, it was probably still working fine on its own on automatic controls and independent power.
It's might be called "the flood" Immediate edit: it's just called "Flood", it is a movie about a flood ravaging through Britain and it stopped when the characters closed the thames barrier.
City next to me flooded water reached the roof from the gate failing
That could make such an interesting story about the workers trying to keep them operational during a zombie apocalypse so that survivors in the city could have a chance to escape!
This would be a project I would be *proud* to be a part of. Something that is actually made well, and made to survive any contingency. Incredible work engineers.
So many dams and building?...
That engineer could have his own KZhead channel. He’s so easy to understand and engaging, I see why Tom gave him so much airtime
🙌
I'd subscribe
Yes, and his folksy charm belies a very deep technical understanding of the subject.
I've never seen anyone describe water physics in such a smooth and casually understandable manner. Very pleasant to listen to
Fck... I wanted to retweet this. I am mixing up genres of social media. It's late night. I better go to sleep.
I love how this channel brings attention to super interesting things that would never reach the average KZhead users otherwise
Well said!
Dude I love your videos!
i agree! 1000% correct
Exactly! Thanks to this, I have now learned there's a river called Thames.
Yee
0:32 this is a quality shot Tom - really insane at the level of cinematics available to be able to do this these days.
I suspect that there were many in both the political and engineering communities who, during the budgeting and planning in the 1970's were saying: "You guys are NUTS! This thing is grossly over designed! Irresponsible waste of precious resources! Call in the value engineering experts.. I'll bet they can show you how to take 30% out of this overbuilt project!" But somebody stood firm. And that person's courage and wisdom-plus clearly excellent maintenance-is why this magnificent engineering achievement is going to last 40 years beyond its "best if used before" date.
Those were the days when a PLAN was made by people with a real brain, not an artificial one.😏
"This mechanism will never ever fail. And even if it does, it won't."
"We believe the boat is unsinkable.” By the time the White Star Line Vice President spoke those words the Titanic was at the bottom of the ocean...
@@EightBall There's no business profits reason to ignore things like that here, it is probable the Titanic sank because of a fire which was ignored while docked because they decided to risk it and not care due to money. But even then it was a business that built it anyway, with the minimum they could get away spending - if it was a similar example there would have been another several failsafes on top costing vast amounts more money to the point it could never have been built. In reality the Titanic almost couldn't be sunk, and would have survived a direct hit rather than trying to turn and would have survived the side hit without the fire - profits, money, and private business is what really got it.
@@wyterabitt2149 Profits, money and private business got you your I-phone matey! And your flight to Spain. And your car and central heated lifestyle. Public money got us the GPO, Mark Drakeford, NCB, and a 6 month wait for a phone connection.
@@andyharpist2938 The other way around matey. Public money funded the invention of internet, touchscreens and radios that make up your iPhone. Private business got us Juicero. And it makes total sense - revolutionary inventions require more risk, investment and collaboration than a private actor can afford.
@@EightBall But it was a ship, not a boat.
Getting "The city must survive" vibes for those redundancy and plan for ship impacts
nice how they british over build like that.
@@SamSitar Most cultures actually overbuilt things historically, however going through various bands of time happened, when cultures would try to cut corners. In modern times though, things are engineered to have a set lifespan, or maximum load, or number of cycles it can survive, and everything about the design is made to be just enough to fulfill that goal. It ensures an efficient use of resources, but it does mean that almost everything in our modern world is semi-disposable- A trend I'm not happy about, but I understand why it's good for design and the market.
@@weeveferrelaine6973 Um AcTuAlLy
@@celestialceilagor3802 ?
@@shiftoff9936 someone said something smart and oppinionated and the answering person doesn't like thinking.
My grandfather was on the committee of people that design it, cool to see that all these years later, his work is still working, rip!
I worked on the barrier as a site engineer in 1977 & 1978…….this video brought back some happy memories!
Did you work with the Armfield engineers ???
Astounding. As a water engineering student, I've heard a lot about "this or that should be built so that it can contain a flood of that magnitude", but never "this needs to contain absolutely any and all floods ever". We design fallible structures because, in most cases, it looks like the smarter choice (to avoid overspending on public infrastructure because apparently we don't have the money to get protection for anytime past the next 50 years or so), but I had yet to run into the problem of how to design something that just cannot, will not, fail.
this is why it makes me sick that the UK still pays india billions every year in froeign aid yet india has a space programme ! british money for british people only !
@@girlsdrinkfeck hahahha then how about Indian jewels out of the queens crown and back in the hands of India, then?
This was built at a good time. Now, it would be shipped off and cost billions more and take longer to build.
@@girlsdrinkfeck That's peanuts compared to if it were going into *China* - helping the Indians along is a good thing :) Look at what's going on in Aus - the Liberals here sold our land and jobs to china - they let ccp engineers run our mine-sites and civil structures! I'd rather give $5billion to India's space programme, than give it to the catholic church as the libs just did...
@@girlsdrinkfeck we probably should have thought of that before enslaving and colonising them
I love "crucial engineering". The people behind it have to go totally overboard with all the failsafes so that in no way can it ever stop working. "Ah yes just in case our backup generator breaks down, install a backup backup generator. You know, just to be safe."
And I bet Japan wishes it hadn’t skipped building the full protection systems of Fukushima (the backup generators were within water reach instead of on the roof and the tsunami barrier was reduced dramatically in size)
And you'll often find each backup is of a different type and model, so that if there's some manufacturing fault (like a specific part fails after 10 years), it doesn't break in all the backups at the same time as well. Having each backup be different in some way or another means hopefully any faults will only affect one backup at a time.
@@goldenhate6649 From what I heard the barrier was high enough to stop the tsunami. The ground underneath however subsided and the wall was now lower.
@@catprog Yes. Just designing protection against the largest tidal wave ever seen there would be foolish - they already knew a wave that big could happen. So they designed the protective wall to shrug off a tidal wave twice as big as the largest one ever seen. A lot of people in the English speaking world don't appreciate how completely beyond normal disasters the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami was.
there's very often an unforeseen common point of failure. I know of a place that had 4 generators. All was fine until a chimney fire that served all 4 prevented them from running.
In an apocalyptic setting, I always wondered how long these structures would last without human intervention.
Considering there are still remnants of concrete structures the Romans used for ports. If nothing major happens I'd guess a couple of thousand years maybe?
@@matthewmac5787 i think they mean if the structures weren’t run by staff what would happen as a result as it’s clearly reliant on staff to operate
@@bobbysreview Well, honestly, if there wasn't any staff left anymore, I think at that point it wouldn't really matter. Flood damage to an empty, presumably ravaged city, is kinda a moot point.
@@KrK007 London used to be a swamp. It will just become a swamp again
@@waterzap99 Ok ''Swamp Thing''.
The growth of the London skyline in the last 25 years has been incredible. I remember when One Canada Square and the BT Tower were the only skyscrapers in London. Maybe a couple others.
"They didn't cut corners then and that's given us breathing space now" Applies to a lot of aspects in life really
As does the opposite: Places where corners are cut in the past gives problems now!
which is why the modern trend of cutting corners and under engineering because of short sighted political decisions is bad. When you cut things to the bone it creates both immediate and long term problems.
@@mytimetravellingdog financial* Ftfy
Really makes you worry about all the cost-cutting and corner-cutting seen nowadays in practically everything, doesn't it?
@@mikehunt3420 It's both political and financial (often politically financial)
Those panning shots are so beautiful. Especially that first shot, really gives you a sense of scale for these massive constructs.
Right?? that was amazing
Another thing that will make you appreciate the scale is that each of those 61-metre main gates mentioned is the same width as the main span of Tower Bridge - one of the design briefs was that anything that can fit through Tower Bridge must be able to fit through the barrier.
"And if a meteorite came down and destroyed the barrier, a second, even stronger barrier, is set to rise out of the ocean automatically"
That reveal shot from the drone at the beginning was spectacular. The quality of Tom's videos never fails to impress me.
Beefy over engineered infrastructure is always my favourite, particularly when it's for public use or protection. There is this immense sense of pride or satisfaction in knowing that there are all these redundancies and backups and that it's okay if one piece fails. Having that flexibility and 'breating room' as you put it is exceptionally cool and a great reason why critical infrastructure should not necessarily be the best value for it's minimum function, but rather should be cost effective for the protection and extra utility you could get out of it.
Well said :))
This applies to most planes, there is an astounding amount of redundancy and systems in place for the passengers safety, there's a reason they cost half a billion dollars each. Always amazed me how they are made and what is behind the scenes.
this is 10000% true
I'm curious to know about C&C redundancy. How many control rooms do they have? What happens if they all fail --- can engineers raise the barrier manually given physical access? Is there any automation to raise the barriers in the event that the control rooms are offline and the barrier itself physically inaccessible?
Yesss
"If the ENTIRE British national power grid fails, it has three separate diesel generators, any one of which could operate the entire thing" My gosh that's a lot of redundancy. I love it.
It's one of the great feats of British engineering which, because it *works* is never really spoken about.
And if the 3 generators also fail, this warehouse of hamsters on wheels is set in motion...
@@LazyMcCrazy Or a hand crank XD
@@LazyMcCrazy Nah they got that giant water battery then.
At that point you have to wonder why they didn’t just built it so it closes automatically if power is lost (i.e. just through gravity or springs or something).
I love seeing these huge projects and all their redundancies. Very awesome stuff!
Such a good video. Everything was so thoroughly explained and not a single unnecessary word wasted. Top tier information!
Fantastically important projects and systems like this are what inspired me to pursue engineering professionally. Fascinating stuff!
Yay BlueJay! I love your vids, it has filled the Sam O Nella hole in my heart!
Its also one of the most popular degrees for future terrorists too.
Hi BlueJay! Will you do engineering videos as well as history as well then?
How did you feel when you learned 99% of an engineer's job is not to make something last but rather to make it barely stand in order to cut costs?
@@roboticbrain2027 that's just a pessimistic view. How would you feel to needlessly waste resources on something when they can be utilised elsewhere?
I painted the insides of the barriers a couple of years ago. I had full access to the barriers and the tunnels. Every morning we would have a tool box talk and it would take about 20 to walk from the North side to the South Side in the tunnels under the Thames. I really did love that job, happy days...
It’s cool how much electrical physics work for fluid dynamics. That reflective wave being akin to transmission wave impedance mismatch where a reflecting standing wave will generate for power not transferred properly to load
To paraphrase Gene Kranz: The designers just calmly laid out all the possible modes of operation for the Thames Barrier, and failure was not one of them.
Although they hadn't really fleshed out the 'Lifeboat' mode.
I wonder how well that works for contingencies like terrorism attacks. The whole system should have triple redundancy and redundant sites under full military control. :)
for real dude. entirely right dude
To quote Ed Harris: Failure is not an option.
@@Jump-n-smash My guess is they left a lot of things out in the video
This was a really high quality video Tom. Great job.
yh
Hi cubfan
Yo Cub! Didn't expect to see you here good sir.
cub always found in the best places
Oh hey cub!
Steve was excellent in this video. He was so engaging and knowledgeable without the information going over the heads of non-engineers.
such a cool structure I've always admired when I've been in London. Now I'm like jeez that would have been fun to design as well :) Thank you
"...That would probably be fairly career-limiting(!)" I'd like to complement both the engineer for that marvelous example of British understatement and whoever did the closed caption for not being able to resist the exclamation point.
human reources: "recently, there have been some concerns about your on-the-job performance; please sign your action plan"
The captioners consistently use (!) to indicate understatements like that and I love it! The captions on Tom Scott videos are always impeccable and it feels really supportive.
@@larksie is the (!) a british thing?
@@Numantino312 good question... I've no idea as I'm not british haha. It seems like a good way to show understatement though and I believe heavy understatement itself is considered Very British 😛 Where I'm from we do aggressively informal sarcasm instead, which might be even harder to caption!
@@Numantino312 Yes.
Really liking this content where Tom is getting access to some BIG engineering. You can see similar on TV, but the depth and quality of content here is far far superior. Keep it up Tom!
i agree! totally perfect
This video feels like the type of thing Richard Hammond would do a show on, but it'd get dragged on and over-sensationalized for an hour with cliffhangers every 3 minutes for ad-breaks. Can't stand that type of content now. A 7 minute video like this is far superior.
and most people dont watch tv cuz of stuff like netflix
Tom Doesn't take a full hour to get to his points. Huge difference and a big part of why i canceled TV.
I was at Gloucester building college when they where building these , we had a day visiting the barriers to see how they where built . We where allowed inside one of them when they where bottoming it out with a 15tonne 360 , it looked like a toy in a cathedral. Amazing
one of my favourite video. I just love this kind of things.
As a Civil Engineer here in the States and a visitor to London a few years back, this is absolutely the correct amount of planning that goes into a project of this magnitude. Thanks, Tom, for your incredible coverage as always, and this is why I love this channel. 🙏🏼
Visit the Delta Works in the Netherlands!
If only the rest of our societal infrastructure was built this way! In particular, internet infrastructure is embarrassingly fragile. :(
could use a few more redundancies
ToyKeeper Absolutely disagree with you on that. On the contrary, the Internet’s infrastructure is designed to be incredibly resilient, almost to the point of being indestructible. It is designed to survive the nuclear strikes of a WWIII after all. When there is a problem, the Internet will route around it. Sure, there are single points of failure in a number of places, but nowhere that would mean any larger part of the internet (and I mean region to country level) would be completely knocked out.
Are there any similar structures in the USA currently or any planned/under construction ?
I absolutely love these types of CANNOT fail systems and I think they really show what humanity is truly capable of.
When humans work to solve a problem we solve it
IF you liked that sort of thing, go look at China.
@@antediluvianatheist5262 ah the tofu dreg engineering 🤣
That was a great video. Thanks for making it . I didnt even know I wanted to know about this.
The engineers behind this should be applauded as national heroes. It's very easy to take shortcuts here and there to lower spending and time on such massive projects and make your plan look good. But those guys build in additional safety measures which as so good in fact that they nearly doubled the estimated life span of the barrier. Incredible foresight and planning.
I get the feeling Tom walks through a city, sees a door in a building somewhere, down an alley and just thinks. "I'm going to find out what is in there." Then spends the next week in the local library researching it.
I think you’re probably spot on!
You're likely right- and London in particular has a lot of winding alleys, funky doorways and forgotten tunnels, so plenty more content to come.
And/or talking to people who own or know about that door
maybe so but the thames barrier is quite large and hard to miss anywhere east of the O2
@@nevreiha Tell that to "The Sand Kite"
When the barrier was being built, there was deep concern that flood water pushed back down the Thames would be forced up the many rivers and streams that run into the river and flood the areas around where the tributaries joined. Obviously the river banks were raised to fix this issue. One village on the River Darent in Kent, became obsessed by the possibility that push back would flood them and wanted the river banks raised by 10ft, from the Thames to the village. The village, Eynsford, had been flooded in 1968 by a rush of water coming down the valley. It took some persuading to get the local councillors to understand that being 200ft higher than the Thames meant they were very, very safe.
Since the Thames Barrier was put in, the Thames has burst its banks in Surrey, Berkshire & Oxfordshire.
@@andrewjones575 Nothing to do with the Thames Barrier. Rivers flood. Breaking news. Is flooding on the Trent, Derwent etc. the fault of the Thames Barrier also?
@@andrewjones575 That's a truth with modifications. The Abingdon/Culham/Sutton courtney area flooded every year when I was a kid, as it's done for thousands of years - that's why the thames valley is one giant gravel pit.
@@andrewjones575 The Thames barrier doesn't contribute to upstream flooding - it holds water back from going upstream, it doesn't prevent downstream flow (I mean, it probably could, but isn't used for that). The problem is a reflected surge going back downstream and causing flooding of other rivers that empty into the Thames estuary.
@@XpOzgamingx I didn't mean to imply that. What I mean is that the upstream flooding is still as frequent.
the amount of backup on this thing is just incredible
Just found this and im so happy I enjoyed it a ton
6:53 "If t his was anything else, you could say the redundancy was over-specified, that requirements like this were ridiculous, *but with so much at stake,* the Thames Barrier is a marvel of not just engineering, but of *how you have to build when something cannot be allowed to fail.* And *that* is how the infrastructure keeping our world together should be built.
And that is something you might not have known
I would put a redundant barrier using another means of operations in front or behind it just for redundancy. Doesn’t look redundant to e.g. a plane impact yet, and there might be other modes of failure that haven’t been discovered yet.
@@Keneo1 I would be more afraid of a terrorist attack than a plane. Just stuff a cargo ship full with military grade explosives and let it detonate while passing throguh the gate.
Not necessarily. Its okay to build plenty of stuff with a decently long lifespan and just replace it. Sometimes technology in a certain area of infastructure can develop quite a lot and its better to replace the old thing with something new. Rather than make it irreplaceable. Especially if the tech ends up being so old that current day engineers need a specially focused education just to understand it.
@@erikziak1249 Blowing it up has little value unless you time it during a debilitating flood. Also, I'm no expert, but I think the coast guard would be against allowing cargo ships filled with military grade explosives into London.
I am always in awe of Civil Engineers, especially those that design things that absolutely must not fail.
My bottom is sore.
@@user-zp7sf8dh3z okay
Never forget that there is only 2mm of aluminium between you and death on an airplane.
@@andyharpist2938 yes let's add more weight to a craft that needs to stay airborne
@@user-zp7sf8dh3z seems legit
I found this one especially interesting. What an amazing bit of engineering.
4:19 you can see what he is talking about on sailboat in dry dock around and on the propeller too, it's often two grey-ish piece of metal that are very corroded, for those interested...
I like hearing about prevention. "What does this make? It makes twelve-figure losses not happen." On a smaller scale, people tend to cut corners on maintenance, I'm glad that at least on this scale it is taken seriously.
you have to when the entire British economy is fully reliant on it
I once heard a lecture by a public health manager who described her job thusly: "I am the head of a largely invisible organization in the business of creating abstract non-events."
Honestly, I wish the media / communication people would frame it that way. We should all be striving for a boring world, without wars, disasters, crime, etc...
99% of society's infrastructure relies on things that are completely invisible.
@@agilemind6241 Let the unfortunate death of 1 person be regarded as much of a tragedy as a single plane crashing. A world where a single accidental death is considered a tragedy is a world worth striving for
“The PM was in his wellies in the House of Commons, we say that’s fairly career limiting” true British understatement
This is the most insane engineering I've ever seen this seems like it's from some post-apocalyptic movie, even the way Tom describes it, how have I never heard this mentioned outside of this video?!?!
Excellent video and discussion. Much appreciated. Loved the discussion on safeguards and layered defense against extreme events. Does anyone know how the approaches and levels of safeguards compare with approaches in other countries like the Netherlands? They also have serious surge protection needs and systems.
".. how you have to build when something cannot be allowed to fail." Meanwhile, Texas setting up their electrical grid: "We don't really get winter here, right?"
At least it can deal with summer heat! >.>
Haha
That system was scarily close to escaping catastrophe. a frequency drop of less than a second was all that it took to take out their grid. (If I recall correctly)
Meanwhile California: Largest economy in America has regularly scheduled loadshedding!
Why they made it entirely independent of the rest of the country's grid is beyond me. Americans...
Proud to say vital replacement equipment is still provided by an original British manufacturer (me!), some 45 years after the original order.
I think you mean its made in china and assembled there. Nothing is actually made anywhere but china.
Good job mate
cool
Fabricated in your own shed next to a pigeon coup I take it?
Sshhh, dont let the secret out bruh, gonna outsource yourself
VeryGood video thanks so much and lovely london 🏴
I'm impressed! If would be fabulous if other structures that people rely on Not To Fail had even a fraction of as much foresight going into them.
Steve explained that so clearly and perfectly... Great engineering communication
Yes. I was struck by that too.
My Grandad was one of the engineers who built it. He always was one for doing a job properly.
o7
Meanwhile this year Britain is short of natural gas for heating because we no longer stockpile it. "Cost efficiencies" and privatisation. Additional supplies have had to be bought in at great cost at the (relative) last minute.
@@jimcrelm9478 Sometimes I wonder where the world would be if we hadn't had chernobyl. If we didn't get so scared of nuclear power and instead kept using it and by now maybe had 50-60% of our power for that. Wouldn't have as many energy shortages and we would have put more research into improving reactor efficiency and safety and maybe developed thorium reactors. We would be 20 years further behind on climate change and be able to do something about it.
My dad too!
@@jimcrelm9478 Improperly applied "efficiency" sinks things so often... let's cut costs, definitely won't lead to a spectacular disaster in 30 years, no sir.
an often overlooked and outstanding piece of engineering. makes one wonder what London life was like near the Thames edge prior to this construction.
over many centuries the Thames was turned from a wide river with many branches and adjoining marshland, to a much narrower and deeper channel. This greatly exacerbated the tidal range, especially once the embankments were built and the river floor was dredged for larger ship traffic. But generally the poorer always lived at the river's edge due to the frequent risk and occurence of flooding, as well as the bad water quality.
KZhead was showing me this video in recommendation from like 3 weeks every other day. Finally saw it, as expected not disappointed at all.
I live in Nigeria. I love Tom so much. His passion for the mundane or the more overlooked story is just so peculiar to him and is just the exact type of thing I’ve been into since I was a kid. From Lagos with love, Thanks Tom
how many princes you have there ? I got at least few mails from them xD
@@Menelutorex what a small minded, borderline racially insensitive response to someone simply sharing his gratitude - pleb.
@@Menelutorex 😐😐😐
Tom Scott - "I am almost out of interesting things in England to talk about" also Tom Scott - " heres a fascinating engineering megastructure in London you have never heard of" your channel is amazing
KERBIN
Fascinating. Thank you
My god. I cant imagine being a worker building that and being on top of thoose roundy things I know they were probably safe while building it but that still gives me chills. I have been on roofs without problem but knowing that you can fall in water, where you dont know whats underneath just makes me shiver
This reminds me of Practical Engineering's video on bridges where Grady explains that anyone can build a bridge but only an engineer can build one that just barely stands. It was about not wasting money by making things overly strong. It is interesting to see the opposite of that problem where you need to be super super strong.
This may be my favorite kind of Tom Scott video. “Here’s a serious problem, and here are the people and systems that have got it covered.”
"Here's something that could be a serious problem. I will now proceed to should that it is being dealt with, how it is being dealt with, and some of the people that are dealing with it. There. Wasn't that nice?"
I think you should have mentioned Tom shows the people dealing with it are serious people. The "we have various modes of operation, because we may not have time to fix/troubleshoot" and "we can do it in various ways to be gentle to the river" *Chef's* *kiss*
Another great video there Tom. 👍🏻
i actually giggled when i heard, "the plant has 3 backup generators. any of which could run the entire system." i am a HUGE stickler for efficiency and redundancy. this is a level of redundancy that makes me blush.
Nothing better than a Tom Scott video to help you keep procrastinating!
You reminded me that I had an exam 🥱🥱🥱🥱😶😶😶
aah sweet sweet procrastinating by watching some facts that im never gonna remember
I uploaded my face reveal.
You aren't allowed to attack me like that
Talking about not being allowed to fail...
As an oceanographer this video brings tears to my eyes because of how beautifully that barrier was planned, to give some perspective on why: in the city I was born in México (Ensenada, Baja California) our pier was constructed in 1960 and its breakwater was designed with a height based on calculations of the biggest wave recorded in the last 5 years when in fact at least you should consider 25 years because in this region we experiment huge storms every 20-25 years and there were enough records in California (which was part of Baja California and México until 1840 or so), but since all federal decisions are taken in the country's capital, which doesn't have a sea near it well, engineers who have never seen the sea took the decision that only 5 years was ok... 4-5 years after it was finished the pier was flooded as well as the city by huge waves. In the 1980s it happened again so the breakwater was increased in height BUT again they failed to account for the highest waves and only took an average of the past 15 years. In the 1990s it was flooded again and its height was again increased AGAIN only taking into consideration 15 years and only an average... three years ago (aprox) it was not only flooded again but the waves were so big that they launched huge rocks the size of a car to the pier, rocks that are used as part of the structure of the breakwater... not to mention that they never accounted for litoral transport and the holes between the rocks of the structure were filled with sand and waves just behaved as it was a sandy beach hahahaha damn :(
in the netherlands we make stuff to withstand the biggest storms that happen once every 10000 years
I lived in Darwin NT Australia in 1974 and read a report that discussed the complete absence of cyclone protection in buildings. Only three months later I spent four hours clinging to a bare roof as debris swept passed me at over 100 mph. I have the glass in my wrist to this day. I have spent my life being deeply cynical about authorities. No injections and no gene therapy for me.
@@andyharpist2938 Bit of a leap from civil engineering projects dependent on the whims of local authorities to gene therapy where the results are peer reviewed and can be replicated by anyone anywhere in the world with sufficient skill. You're confusing scientific research with infrastructure policy. Personally, I don't trust computer scientists. I don't believe computers exist...
@@garysheppard4028 Peer reviewed in Wuhan?
@@andyharpist2938 Nothing if not predictable I guess...
This video just appeared randomly on my recommendations. I don't even know anything of engineering, still stayed for the whole video.
Hell I'm not even British. I didn't know this existed.
Thank you, I enjoyed learning about this. As a ‘ yank ‘ I didn’t even know about this barrier.
I'm glad somebody built infrastructure with multiple redundancy and localized power and control in mind. In the 21st century that's starting to seem like rare genius.
It was built in 1984, so this century doesn't really come into it...
@@adaddinsane Started in '74 and finished in '84
As an engineer who works in infrastructure I can promise you that it still happens everywhere, its just the public only notices when something fails and not that 1000s of projects that don't
Steve, the guy from the Environment Agency, did such a great job here of explaining how the barrier works. Really engaging presenting style from him!
Thoroughly enjoyed that, thank you for sharing 😊
This is truly amazing
If you want an even bigger version of something like this: the Oosterscheldekering and Maeslantkering in the Netherlands are exactly that. Built in the same overkill way and keeping massive amounts of water out. I would imagine these teams talk to each other and share knowledge as well
As opposed to the pump system in new orleans, which was built in the 1800s and runs on an ancient 25 hertz electrical system powered by six aging turbines, one of which broke in 2005 and was never repaired, another was decommissioned because replacement parts couldn't be manufactured any longer. In 2021 all of the remaining four failed before a hurricane, and everything was running on a backup of diesel motors with frequency converters and a backup 60 hz turbine jury-rigged to output 20% of it's power at 25 hz.
Dutch company helped to build this too (BAM group)
@@bartbatenburg Isn't there a simularly designed system somewhere in the Netherlands?
@@someonespotatohmm9513 Well, all systems are similar in some way, but I couldn't find one with rotating doors.
@@someonespotatohmm9513 there is a 'Stuw' in Hagestein, Driel and Amerongen that work on the same principle.
When something cannot be allowed to fail. Wow, it's chilling to think about just how important those barriers are.
nuke the gates
@@walterwhite4969 if the gate is nuked than the city would be obliterated, back to the statement, if thames barrier fell, there is much bigger problem going on
@@walterwhite4969 ngl, if you could nuke just the gates I'd be impressed
The UK has mostly demonstrated lately, that it cuts corners in every department, refuses to deal with the consequences of cutting corners, and then there the good old blaming someone else when something fails.
@@Manu-Official that's not our fault though, it's probably Scotlands fault.
This video is really good. It is very instructive
I had no idea about these gates. Very interesting!
I get the feeling that the most common reasons for catastrophic failures often involve both systemic issues and human error. I'd be interested to more hear about the decision making elements as well as the engineering
Green B
“That would be career-limiting.” I love British humor
Understatement is our thing.
Absolutely fascinating!
Tom always answers the questions, that we didnt know we had.
Such great engineering and design. The huge margin of safety and the fact that multiple unrelated systems would all need to fail at the same time for something to go wrong is awesome.
And those system backups would also need to fail
"They didn't cut corners then" I felt that, a local bridge that was opened in 1900 was built so solid that it held 115 years, until 2016, way longer then planned, where it got replaced by a completely new bridge that was so "cut down" during planning that they used 500 tons less steel than needed, which obviously caused massive problems while building it. And I think no one expects that new "French designer bridge" to hold anywhwere near as long as the old one, even with repairs.
When did engineering go from "Efficiency and minimalism" to "Good enough, not my future problem"? :\
It’s the same reason we lost ships in the Falklands War. The destroyers had been so nickel & dimed they didn’t have defence systems that could actually deal with Exocets and low-flying fast attack aircraft at the same time.
I heard that this was because in the past, engineering wasn't as precise as it is now, so everything was over-engineered to make sure it could hold, now, with more precision, they can build something to last exactly only 50 years
@@Ranstone Not sure about the UK, but where I live around the seventies. The oil crisis completely changed our perspective on building more than needed.
@@pleasant_asymmetry True, that's also a big part of that. I don't have the exact numbers but one positive side effect of that was that the bridge could hold more then double the weight it was originally planned & built for because they added such large amounts of error-margins, which came in very handy with newer trains/traffic.
I didn't know this existed 30 minutes ago. Thanks algorithm,, and thank you for the quality content
This guy is a British treasure,love from Minnesota
This is a really interesting concept of engineering I'd like to learn more of - over-engineering/creating large margins of error/redundancy to almost the point of paranoia. Are there some other similar examples to the Thames that you could take a look at/have taken a look at?
Almost any modern aircraft. They look so complicated to the lay person not because there is a lot there (although there are a lot of systems!) but because all the systems have at least 2 (usually 3 redundancy backups). By law, most systems need copies running at a time (e.g. altimeter/ airspeed etc.), so having 4 copies mean 2 can fail, when the liklihood of even one failing is low. Humans can't fly modern aircraft on their own - no manual override for the entire aircraft! Some of the systems do have manual mode of course. So the electronics and backup system cannot fail. To do so means it falls out of the sky.
@Ben Bauer yes! And also any space craft, or submarine.
Nuclear power plants
Data Centers are built to different tier levels. A tier 3 data center is like this, alternate power sources batteries and gens, Everything is double+ redundant.
"This is a really interesting concept of engineering I'd like to learn more of - over-engineering/creating large margins of error/redundancy to almost the point of paranoia." look like similar level of redundancy as used in aviation (3 to 4)
Tom always explains topics we didn’t know existed.
I uploaded my face reveal.
Tom is practically showing us the best way to consume information
If you’re from the UK or especially London you know about the Thames barrier lmao it’s really famous
Fascinating! I also hope security is top notch there as well. There's a lot on the line it would seem.
I remember being at school and its opening along with the raising of the Mary Rose were the only two events the whole school sat on the floor in the hall to watch
I would love to see an entire series diving in depth about this engineering feat!
Maybe Real Engineering can tackle that one
@@wiebemartens1030 Good idea.
No point in diving really. The Thames is too dirty to see anything.
@@MrShikaga Funny how the Thames river is considered to be one of the most cleanest in the world, I guess the bar is set very low...
@@bathwater3196 is it though? Always dirty when I've been to london
Tom, we have the old river control structure over here in Louisiana. It is a relatively small barrier that keeps the Mississippi River from flowing into a new course which would severely disrupt River trade in the United States. It almost did fail in the 90s or 80s (I forgot off the top of my head.). So yes, props to proper British engineering and come to Louisiana if you want to learn more about the Old River control structure or the Bonnet Caree spillway.
Did it hold when Katrina hit? Or is it farther upriver?
@@leofielding6786 it is north of Baton Rouge on the Mississippi River so it is really not affected by hurricanes. The control structure is affected by spring floods.
Near failure 1973. It would be apocalyptic. 60% of US grain exports would stop. 4 of the country's top 15 ports would go dry. $600M of economic loss every day. Not to mention oil/gas pipelines across the Atchafalaya that would be torn out.
Thanks for the shout out for "proper British engineering." I'm very proud to be British as we created the modern world we live in. I love British engineering, as everything's over engineered 👍🏻 OVER engineering something is the best type of engineering. It's just a shame the rest of the doesn't see it that way 🤨
Very informative and interesting to watch
i wish a teaspoon of that amount of care was put into the design of the computers we use everyday