👷‍♂️ They Built a Port 30 km Into the Ocean (Engineers Approved)

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Hello Fellow Engineers!

Welcome to Real Civil Newsletter - the only newsletter where we redesign geography, review bridges with scientific bias, and turn teamwork into a spectator sport.

This week we’re heading 30 km out to sea to look at a port that solved “shallow water” by simply abandoning land, catching up on engineering and gaming chaos, and watching a simple paddling game descend into HR-reportable nonsense.

There’s automated megastructures, indie drama, a moat-based bridge that refuses to look like a bridge, and Paddy once again testing whether he’s apprentice material or just here for morale.

Let’s dive in 👇

This week we’re giving away TWO copies of Monster Care Simulator, the only game where you run a clinic for adorable creatures who probably deserve better healthcare than you’re qualified to provide.

And now… the structural drumroll… 🥁

🏆 WINNERS:
linuxchan
notthatbad42

Congrats! Check your inbox - you’re about to manage a full-blown monster care centre, hatch questionable eggs, raise tiny gremlins into slightly larger gremlins, and somehow keep everything alive while hiring staff who absolutely should unionise.

Didn’t win? Don’t worry - more giveaways are coming, and yes, bribing me with photos of good bridges continues to be both allowed and encouraged.

👷‍♂️ Truss Me, I’m an Engineer…

🌊 Yangshan Deep Water Port: Why China Built a Mega-Port 30 km Into the Ocean

Most ports politely stay near the coast.

China looked at the coastline near Shanghai and said:

“Too shallow. Put it in the sea.”

Welcome to Yangshan Deep Water Port, a logistics megastructure so determined to handle big ships that it abandoned land entirely and moved 30 km offshore onto a cluster of rocky islands.

Because when your container ships are too large for nature, you don’t redesign the ships… you redesign geography.

🧠 The Engineering:

• Built on four rocky islands in Hangzhou Bay, then connected to the mainland by the 32.5 km Donghai Bridge, one of the longest sea bridges on Earth

• Designed specifically for ultra-large container ships that need deeper water than Shanghai’s muddy, shallow coastline can offer

• Handles 40+ million TEUs per year, making it one of the busiest container ports on the planet

• Features fully automated terminals, with robotic cranes, autonomous vehicles, and enough sensors to make a civil engineer emotional

• Built to survive typhoons, storm surges, corrosive salt air, and the crushing weight of global trade expectations

The port operates 24/7, loading and unloading ships the size of small cities, while the mainland connection quietly feeds it with trucks and trains like a logistical umbilical cord.

Final Verdict:

A port that moved offshore because the ocean wasn’t cooperating.
An entire bridge built just to reach it.
Automation so advanced humans are mostly there for emotional support.

10/10
Would absolutely build a port in the middle of the sea again.

⚡ Cool Links

⚙️ Engineering & Infrastructure

🤯 One of the world’s biggest detectors inches nearer to detecting true dark matter
Dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up roughly 85 percent of the universe, is one of the biggest mysteries facing astrophysicists and cosmologists today.
 

🌉 Top 10 Longest Bridges in the World 2025
Here’s a look at the world’s ten longest bridges, highlighting how architecture continues to push the boundaries of form, structure, and span. All good engineers should have this list memorised and ready to fire off at office parties.

🎮 Gaming & Indie Update

📣 New Petition Demands Release of Nemesis System As Netflix Acquires Warner Bros
On the gaming front, Netflix will soon become the new owner of NetherRealm Studios, Rocksteady, Warner Bros. Montreal, and more. The entertainment giant will also own gaming franchises belonging to these studios, in addition to any patents. This, of course, is significant since Warner Bros. Discovery owns the patent to the Nemesis System from Shadow of Mordor. Following the deal’s announcement, fans are now asking Netflix to release the patent.

🏣 New Postal spinoff axed immediately as publisher is "overwhelmed" by gen-AI backlash, but its dev denies the allegations
Running With Scissors says that accusations of generative AI use in Postal Bullet Paradise have "caused extreme damage to our brand."

🐕‍🦺 Paddy’s Corner

You can't help but smile!

Me and paddy are stuck in a standoff for his toy.

Who will win, Engineer or Apprentice?

👾 Indie Game of the Week:

This week’s video is Paddle Paddle Paddle Part 2, because apparently getting 10,000 likes means I have to suffer again.

It’s a simple game about rowing a boat, made nearly impossible by having @TheSuitedBird in charge of half the controls.

There are sharks, pirates, ice physics, 250+ deaths, and several arguments that should’ve been handled by HR.

At one point we become a bridge. On purpose.

It’s time for a Bridge Review!

This week we’re looking at the Moses Bridge (Loopgraafbrug) in the Netherlands, the only structure on Earth that looked at a moat and said: “Let’s just walk through it.”

Engineering Highlights:

• A sunken pedestrian bridge that cuts cleanly through a historic moat while keeping water exactly where it belongs

• Hidden concrete walls resist lateral water pressure, proving gravity and hydrostatics are still undefeated

• Constructed using waterproofed Accoya wood, because normal timber would’ve lasted about five minutes

• Designed to preserve the visual integrity of a 17th-century fort, meaning the bridge does its job and then politely shuts up

• Zero unnecessary arches, cables, or “statement features”, just a trench, a walkway, and water that hasn’t won yet

Final Score: 8.9 / 10

Lost 1.1 points for pretending not to be a bridge and confusing tourists into walking into a moat.