Kansai International Airport is built on the sea in Osaka Bay, Japan, and is the second-busiest airport in the country. The most distinctive feature of this Japanese airport is that it is built on an artificial island.
The The terminal building is 1.7 kilometers long, with the the world's longest airport terminal, and it has four floors. The ceiling was designed to resemble the profile of an airplane wing.
The artificial island on which the airport is built It is 4 kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide. Construction began in 1987 and was completed in 1989, taking into account the possibility of earthquakes and typhoons in the area, and It provided jobs for about 10,000 people.
The construction of this island required about 21 million cubic meters of concrete blocks and presented some challenges, such as the island sinking 8 meters before the project was completed. There are two options for accessing the airport: a railroad bridge or a highway.
This airport was recognized as one of the «Ten Civil Engineering Monuments of the Millennium» by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The terminal at this airport was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and opened in 1994.
