Maglev Construction

Shanghai, China

A new high-speed maglev train will connect Shanghai to Beijing, cutting travel times from 10.5 hours to four. The workers I spoke with in 2009 estimate that construction will take another three years to connect the two cities.

High atop one of the many pillars holding up the maglev, three workers look out over the construction site near Shanghai. They invited my up, so I climbed the ramshackle stairs. Two workers stand atop a concrete pillar of the maglev they are building. Each of these pillars supports a giant concrete and steel piece that two tracks are laying on. The workers live on site, in a makeshift shack just down the ramp with their wifes and small children. A migrant worker holds his infant during a break. This house holds maybe twenty workers, their families, and belongings. Looming in the back is a bridge over a local road. The families cook here, wash their veggies out back and move as the construction moves along the track. A worker and his daunting task. Breaking up the road that leads to the new bridge for the maglev. A big sledgehammer is all he has to reduce the concrete blocks to something more manageable. A worker sweeps the road along the construction site of the maglev from Shanghai to Beijing. An old fashioned broom seems little help against the engulfing dust at the end of a long summer in Shanghai on this early morning. Three pillars of the new maglev stand tall in first light on a Saturday morning in Shanghai. Two pillars hold up a prefabricated slab of concrete and steel that the maglev runs on top of. Brought up by a machine running on the track laid so far and then moved across the chasm, each of them is some 30-40 meters long. Image running this for 1200km from Shanghai to Beijing. From atop an almost finished pillar, two workers gaze out as the construction site stretches out into the distance of Shanghai. On the left, the big new station will arise. Meanwhile, the workers still have a long way to go to connect Shanghai and Beijing. Perched inside a piece of scaffolding for the new maglev construction, workers take a break. Scaffolding like this stretches for hundreds f meters along Changning Road in Shanghai, where the maglev and several new highways and a metro are all being build at the same time. With so many lines competing for space, each has to put at its own level to make sure traffic can flow well. Two workers are bending new steel together in the early morning sun on a construction site in Shanghai. Overhead, the maglev train, and several highways crisscross and branch. I was fortunate to be there on an early Sunday morning, with the site open and people friendly and welcoming again. Well, there are only five, and they are not really dwarfs, but when I composed the shot, that is what they looked like. In reality, they are construction workers high up on a new piece of highway, looking down during a quick rest break. The site near Shanghai was very accessible and people were curious and friendly as almost always. A young worker is taking five high up in the steel scaffold on a high way construction. The early morning sun casts a nice light on him. The steel rods and his clothes are the same color, the only break is the yellow helmet. He looks lost, deep in thought, maybe wondering how much more construction there will be in his lifetime. Hard at work in the scaffolds, workers appear as black outlines against the morning sky. Only one is lit enough to make out the details and colors of his clothes. I was lucky to get just enough light on him, with the others mostly dark, to make this shot work well. An old rusty wheel barrow sits in a field of debris. The morning sun lights it up, as in the distance workers are braiding steel for another piece of high way. Overhead several highways are parting ways . I like the juxtaposition of the massive highways and the simple, human powered wheel barrow. Sights like these are still very common in China and it always makes you wonder what could be achieved with better tools. Two workers are busy with some more steel, this time shot in back light, against the pillars of concrete already done. I like the eyes and the expression of the man on the left. He is focused on his work, which seems and endless daunting task of tying steel and then doing it all over again tomorrow.

Tags: China, Construction

Category: Documentary

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A migrant worker holds his infant during a break. This house holds maybe twenty workers, their families, and belongings. Looming in the back is a bridge over a local road. The families cook here, wash their veggies out back and move as the construction moves along the track.

Workers' Housing, Shanghai

A migrant worker holds his infant during a break. This house holds maybe twenty workers, their families, and belongings. Looming in the back is a bridge over a local road. The families cook here, wash their veggies out back and move as the construction moves along the track.

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