Robotic Legs Help 7-Ton Primary School Walk to Its New Location

Moving old buildings to make room for new ones is not a new practice in China, but this is the first time that this type of robotic legs has been used for this purpose. This is relatively new technology developed in 2018 and it’s being used as an alternative to the traditional way of relocating a building, which involves using side rails or flatbeds.

Because the 1935-built Lagena Primary School had to go in order to make room for a new shopping center, authorities decided that, instead of tearing it down, they should move it. The shape of the building posed the biggest challenge, since it meant the traditional way couldn’t be used, SCMP reports, as you can see in the video below.

So, they dug around and under the school, and inserted hydraulic devices (some 200 of them), which then lifted the 7-ton building. Then, they started moving it inch by inch: over 18 days, the building traveled 62 meters (203.4 feet) before settling down to its newest and hopefully-permanent location. The entire operation ended on October 15.

“We will transform the school into a building integrating cultural education and intangible heritage preservation, involving both culture and innovation,” Li Jianfeng, general manager of the project, told the media outlet. “We hope to revitalize the old building.”

The new tech of using robotic legs allowed authorities not only to keep the building intact, but also to shift its orientation by some 20 degrees and cut down operation time by 20 percent. Plus, they got to put on one heck of a show, which the video below will also show.

This is not a real saying, but it could very well be: if you’re not going to school, the school will come to you.