A world renowned record-breaking airport is faced with the prospect of sinking into the ocean within the next century.
Kansai International Airport, which cost around a staggering £15bn to build, is located on one of two manmade islands in Japan’s Osaka Bay. The airport sits on a seabed mainly made up of alluvial clay, a soft substance that engineers knew would end up compressing over time.
Originally opened 32 years ago in 1994, it was originally predicted that it would sink around 13ft in around 50 years. However, it has sunk faster than expected and has actually gone down 42ft instead.
This comes as the airport continues to handle a recovering amount of air traffic with the facility recording 169,774 departures and arrivals in 2024 alone alongside 25.9m passengers.
Speaking to the Smithsonian Magazine about the subsidence problem, the former communications director for Kansai Airports Yukako Handa, said engineers had been surprised by the difference in how much they thought it would sink and how much it has actually sunk.
He said: “When the Kansai Airport was constructed, the amount of soil to reclaim the land was determined based on necessary ground level and subsidence estimation over 50 years after the construction.”
In order to try and slow the airport’s literal decline, the engineers fitted sand drains, but the airport continued to sink faster than expected. Later, the Independent reported that a further £112m was invested to bulk up the seawall around the airport, an action that slowed the sinking rate.
So far predictions suggest it could sink below sea level as early as 2056 if the sinking continues at its current rate. Furthermore, because the airport is so close to sea level, it is vulnerable to storms and seismic changes.
In 2018, Typhoon Jebi flooded the runway and forced Kansai to shut for two weeks. On another occasion two of its runways were flooded and another sent a 2,500 ship into the bridge connecting the airport to mainland Japan.
Despite its’ potentially short lifespan, Kansai International Airport has been making headlines for positive reasons too.
In 2024 it was praised for not losing a single piece of luggage in 30 years of operation with officials claiming that no passenger has ever lost their luggage at the airport.
The amazing achievement has mean the airport has received a bucketload of awards including the ‘World’s Best Airport for Baggage Delivery’ awarded at the Skytrax World Airport Awards.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
