Tokyo’s new communication tower to open on 22 May

Tokyo Sky Tree under construction in Feb 2010 (Wikimedia Commons)

Construction work on the broadcasting tower, the 790-million-dollar project which dominates the skyline of northern Tokyo, is expected to be completed by the end of the year as planned, although interior details remain to be finished. The public opening will be on 22 May, 2012; it is the world’s tallest stand-alone communication tower.

One of Tokyo Sky Tree’s main purposes is as a television and radio broadcasting tower. Tokyo’s current broadcasting tower, Tokyo Tower, is at 333 metres (1,093 feet), and is no longer tall enough to give complete digital terrestrial television broadcasting coverage because it is surrounded by many high-rise buildings.

The Tokyo Sky Tree is now the tallest free-standing tower in the world with its height of 634 metres (2,080 feet), which surpasses the 600-metre Canon Tower in Guangzhou, China, and is the second tallest man-made structure on earth after Dubai’s 828-metre Burj Khalifa skyscraper. The tower will have two observatories, one at 350 metres and the second at 450 metres, as well as shops and restaurants.

To keep the structure safe during Japan’s frequent earthquakes, the tower boasts a cutting-edge anti-seismic design, including pilings that fan out underground like the roots of a tree. The tower consists of two parts, an outer steel frame and an inner shaft of reinforced concrete, which can move separately to cancel out their seismic energies ­ a design idea borrowed from ancient Japanese pagodas.

In early 2012, once Japanese television networks switch entirely to digital transmissions, the Tokyo Sky Tree will take over television broadcasts from the 52-year-old Tokyo Tower to beam signals across the city’s ever-rising skyline.

(Source: tempo.com.ph via  Media Network Weblog)