Mega Builders
Upcoming episodes
Apr 2nd
1000p
Water Park - Canary Islands
On the resort island of Tenerife, just off the coast of North Africa, a small army of designers and labourers are building what will be the largest man-made surfing wave in history - and one of the most ambitious waterparks ever conceived. But first they have to figure out how to meet the wave machine’s exacting standards on an island better know for its “manana” attitude. Throw in a fire, the tail end of a hurricane, and a seemingly never-ending series of construction snafus, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster as they race for the record books, and the biggest wave ever created by machine.
Apr 2nd
1100p
Stolen Power (aka Wind Farm)
Twenty-five kilometers off the coast of Holland, a brave crew of construction workers struggles to erect sixty tall turbine-driven windmills in the wild North Sea. The giant blades of these monster machines will spin at 400 km per hour. They’ll produce enough electricity to completely power a medium-sized Dutch city. But troubles hound this project constantly. The high winds they’re trying to harness mean it’s often too dangerous for the crew to work. An unstable ship slows progress and threatens the safety of the men. Severe construction delays push the whole team into the worst sea weather of all – winter storm season.
Apr 3rd
1200a
Mighty Shovel
With gold prices at record highs, Barrick Gold wants to sell all the gold it can. So it orders the World's Biggest Gold Mining Shovel to replace a shovel half its size at its massive open pit mine in Nevada.. Now the clock is ticking. First, Brenda Hanamann, the manager of the P&H weld factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin must weather one delaying crisis after another as her welders build the giant parts of the shovel. Then, in Nevada, twenty-four year old assembly foreman Landon Hendrix must steer his young crew through bad weather and dangerous crane lifts to fit the Mighty Shovel together from the thousands of parts shipped from Milwaukee. He has just eight weeks to do it. Now the pressure's really on. Will the shovel be finished on time? If it isn't, P&H must pay Barrick Gold rich penalties for every day the shovel misses its delivery deadline.
Apr 9th
1000p
Ice Hotel
Building the world's largest structure of snow and ice is a mega challenge of towering proportions. Anything can go wrong. And often it does. You'd think that Ake Larrson and Arne Bergh, builders of Sweden's world famous ICEHOTEL could rely on cold weather 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. But they're hit by a warm snap two weeks into their six week construction schedule. Soon, with each passing day, the warm snap becomes a warm spell. It's too warm to make snow, and too warm to continue building rooms! But Ake and Arne's deadline is fixed. Soon, guests who've paid deposits will arrive to check into a hotel that Ake and Arne haven't built yet! Will the warm spell last? Will this be the first time nature defeats Ake and Arne? Or will it turn cold again in time for construction crews to make one final push to get the ICEHOTEL finished on time? This year, it's a nailbiter all the way.
Apr 9th
1100p
Arctic Ice Crusher (aka Korea)
In South Korea, a team of shipbuilders has only ten weeks to assemble the hull of the first combination oil tanker-icebreaker they've ever built. Along the way, they struggle with delays caused by weather, language barriers and the difficulties of the vessel's two innovative $10 million propeller steering units. Features dramatic footage of some of the largest and fastest crane lifts ever seen on Mega Builders.
Apr 10th
1200a
Hard Rock Park
In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina a team of engineers have just one year to build the world’s first Rock and Roll theme park, Hard Rock Park. They’ve got to build a massive roller coaster over water, a risky new ride that combines a ferris wheel with a coaster track and the world’s biggest Gibson guitar replica. Time is tight and the team faces challenges from dangerously soft ground, possible hurricanes and tricky mechanics involved in some extremely unusual rides. Music from Led Zeppelin, Arlo Guthrie and the Moody Blues mixes with the sounds of construction throughout.
Apr 16th
1000p
Arctic Ice Crusher (aka Danish Ship)
3000 shipyard workers build the World's Biggest Container Ship in the biggest little shipyard around, in Odense, Denmark. Soren Jensen's crew must install the World's Biggest Engine, Longest Engine Shaft and World's Biggest Propellor in the big ship and they have to get it right first time! One mistake with million dollar parts like the monster propellor can setback the ship's build schedule big time. So when Jensen learns that two big parts of the engine are out of alignment, he has to come up with a solution fast! If not, he and his crew will just have to spin their wheels until they do! But they'll figure it out. They're Danes! They've built ships here since the Vikings sailed longboats out of Odense more than ten centuries ago.
Apr 16th
1100p
Floating Bridge
Engineers had no choice. They had to build a "floating bridge" in Kelowna, British Columbia. Lake Okanagan was too deep and too muddy to sink columns to support a standard bridge. So the engineers designed a bridge of nine pontoons, each as long as a football field. Then they decided to make the floating pontoons out of concrete! But, with only a dozen or so floating bridges around the world, no one has any experience building a floating bridge. Engineers and work crews must learn from scratch how to build the 6000 tonne pontoons. Then marine crews must tow the concrete behemoths across the lake, and line up each pontoon to the next to tolerances of millimetres. It's a tense day when the pontoon that marine project manager Kevin Giberson and his second in command Kevin Hamakawa are towing is pushed dangerously close to submerged cables by trick lake currents. But after two and a half years of hard work through blistering Canadian summers and frigid winters, Kelowna and the world gets a new floating bridge.
Apr 17th
1200a
Glitz City (MGM)
In Las Vegas -- the quintessential city of razzle-dazzle and bling -- MGM is going for the ultimate one-upmanship. The Hollywood lion is building a 31-hectare mini-city with all amenities for those living there or visiting. It’ll cost a cool $9 billion -- the largest privately financed project in North America – ever. This is a story of a massive project being built in a very short time. It’s a logistical nightmare, says project manager Bill Smith. “One of my most important jobs is to manage harmony amongst the troops. It’s a pressure cooker, and not a lot of people want to be in that for a couple of years. So this ain’t for everybody.” It’s a good thing this town never sleeps because this construction site won’t either, with so much to do in so little time.