In order to make a way for the upcoming 2010 World Expo, Shanghai local authorities are relocating a 104-year-old customs office building. The fragile building will be moved southward for more than 35 meters, according to Xinmin Evening News.

The building, which is 1,100 square meters and weighs more than 2,000 tons, must be put on steel wheels using 8 computer-controlled jacks. Moving at a pace of only 15 millimeters per minute, it will travel about 4 meters each day until it reaches its destination.

The team working to move the house successfully moved the Shanghai Concert hall 66 meters to its original place in 2003.

Zheng Qihua, General Manager of Shanghai Xian Wei Civil Engineering and also one of the project's leaders, commented on the complex relocation process. "We have reinforced all the parts of the building, because many of the walls and beams are rotten and fragile. We placed channel steels in each room to protect the structure, so it looks as if we have cloaked the building in a steel coat."

Zheng noted that the most difficult technical issue is avoiding any deviation from the intended path during the move. "We use a programmable logic controller (PLC) to ensure that the building will move in a straight line," he said.

The whole project is scheduled to be finished by the end of April.

Built in 1906, the customs office was also used as a Japanese weapons warehouse during World War II.

(Print story by Wang Ke)