alt Hacker NewsThis is incredible -- serious question -- has anything of this scale been done in the US or Europe? Do we even have the technology?
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In 1930 they moved an entire telephone exchange in Indianapolis without even taking it offline: https://indianahistory.org/blog/instead-of-moving-mountains-...
The technology in this video appears to be computer control of the many pistons underneath the raised block. I would estimate that could be done with roughly 1970s-level of technology.
The town of Kiruna in Sweden is currently being relocated because it is sinking into the iron mine that originally led to the founding of the town. Some buildings are being relocated on tracks in a similar way to that Shanghai video.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/05/why-a-swedish-...
Structure relocation is 19th century tech, still as fascinating as back then. This was done all over the world, on a much bigger scale than a single block. In some US cities in particular, and in Moscow they moved entire streets like that, with people inside.
It's just expensive and there's no reason to do that unless the city is being actively developed, which Shanghai still is, and older structures are in the way.
Back in 1991 a church built in the 1500s was moved on rails at Kifissia, Greece. Sure, not the same scale but taking into consideration the time it was built, it was a great achievement
Sorry, could only find reference in Greek language but the pictures and diagrams are universal :) plus translation options are always available https://www.mixanitouxronou.gr/to-ekklisaki-pou-xethemelioth...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel#Relocation
In the 60s a massive stone monument was moved 200m up in elevation to avoid being flooded by a dam.
Yes, it has been common enough, no "robots" required. The Indiana Bell Building is a famous one from a century ago, which gets videos posted about it on social media ever so often.
Something similar but different was back in the early 1900s, several city blocks in Seattle were moved or relocated when large chunks of the city were blasted away with water to flatten it. Although most old buildings were simply demolished.
Moving single buildings is pretty common
not quite the same scale area wise, but interesting nonetheless https://www.archdaily.com/973183/the-building-that-moved-how...
As for your actual question, I'm pretty sure we (US, Europe, humans in general) could do quite a bit more than we do now if we had a reason to do so. (or were 100% sure about the results)
lower tech/scale but in Chile (in the island of Chiloe) they have been doing this for centuries for individual houses: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/moving-houses-of-chilo... - although no smart jacks, only bulls and people.
Here is the Kaisersaal in Berlin being moved on air cushions in 1996 [1]. And wasn't a better part of Chicago jacked up building by building some time in the 19th century to make room for a sewage system?
[1] https://www.bz-berlin.de/archiv-artikel/hier-schwebt-ein-den...
In Romania in the 80s, a number of churches were moved to make space for new building projects. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/dec/14/bucharest-mov...
Not the same scale but the 4-story concrete building The Museum Hotel in New Zealand was moved on rails in the 1990's https://www.rejigit.co.nz/database/redactor_images/large/689...
Maybe the scale of these other moves were limited by not having the adaptable height jacks to keep everything straight.
Check out the raising of Chicago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago). From buildings up to entire city blocks were raised, moved on rollers, or both, usually while businesses and residents stayed in them for normal day-to-day life.