4 ms·

> Construction of the tunnel and the two loop lifts is expected to last up to 14 months (likely much less). Call me skeptical. Seattle tried to build a tunnel

> Construction of the tunnel and the two loop lifts is expected to last up to 14 months (likely much less). Call me skeptical. Seattle tried to build a tunnel and it took... wait is it still happening?? I’d like to know what they’re doing differenty in their digging process.

secabeen 8y ago
Smaller tunnel is the big one, I think. The seattle tunnel is 57-feet wide. The Boring Company tunnel is 14-feet wide.
brian-armstrong 8y ago
SF also has a giant hole in the ground that is years out from being done. Even if the Boring project runs 3x as fast and 1/4 as expensive it'd still cost hundreds of millions and take a few years
jv22222 8y ago
The goal was to make the boring machine as fast as Gary the snail. Maybe they did that. Also, the machine builds the tunnel reinforces as it goes. https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Elon-Musk-think-he-can-bore-5-10x-faster-than-any-of-the-thousands-of-tunneling-projects-across-dozens-of-countries https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Elon-Musk-think-he-can-bore-5...
- apexalpha 8y ago
  Doesn't every tunnel boring machine do this?
paxys 8y ago
Can't really compare public projects to a privately funded one.
marssaxman 8y ago
Seattle tried to build the largest-diameter highway tunnel ever constructed, digging through a bunch of century-old fill material used to extend the shoreline with an enormous, one-of-a-kind tunnel boring machine. The tunnel was eventually completed, after years of delay, and WSDOT is currently building out a double-decker, multi-lane highway within its shiny new monster tunnel. At the same time as this boondoggle megaproject was going on, Seattle also built five ordinary subway tunnels for its light rail network, using the same bog-standard railway-sized TBMs which have been used successfully all over the world for years, and these projects were completed on time and within budget. The premise of the Boring Company is that useful transportation infrastructure can be accomplished more cheaply by constructing even smaller, simpler tunnels with standardized tunneling machines. Their tunnels are literally just concrete tubes with concrete floors, and they are saving even more money by skipping the enormously expensive underground stations necessary with a traditional subway by using "skates" small enough to be shuttled back to the surface in an elevator. The Seattle project was enormously ambitious; the Boring Company plan is clearly designed to be as boring as possible.
kalleboo 8y ago
It took 17 months to bore the 17 km City Tunnel train tunnel in southern Sweden. But the City Tunnel is actually two tunnels not one (+ cross-passages), it's 3 times longer, and has twice the diameter. For the City Tunnel, the whole construction including 3 elaborate stations, all the traditional track infrastructure including 2 different signaling systems and connecting it to the existing rail took 5 years. That's probably the part the Boring Company is trying to save on, not so much the actual tunneling.

secabeen 8y ago

Smaller tunnel is the big one, I think. The seattle tunnel is 57-feet wide. The Boring Company tunnel is 14-feet wide.

brian-armstrong 8y ago

SF also has a giant hole in the ground that is years out from being done. Even if the Boring project runs 3x as fast and 1/4 as expensive it'd still cost hundreds of millions and take a few years

jv22222 8y ago

The goal was to make the boring machine as fast as Gary the snail. Maybe they did that. Also, the machine builds the tunnel reinforces as it goes. https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Elon-Musk-think-he-can-bore-5-10x-faster-than-any-of-the-thousands-of-tunneling-projects-across-dozens-of-countries https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Elon-Musk-think-he-can-bore-5...

apexalpha 8y ago
Doesn't every tunnel boring machine do this?

paxys 8y ago

Can't really compare public projects to a privately funded one.

marssaxman 8y ago

Seattle tried to build the largest-diameter highway tunnel ever constructed, digging through a bunch of century-old fill material used to extend the shoreline with an enormous, one-of-a-kind tunnel boring machine. The tunnel was eventually completed, after years of delay, and WSDOT is currently building out a double-decker, multi-lane highway within its shiny new monster tunnel. At the same time as this boondoggle megaproject was going on, Seattle also built five ordinary subway tunnels for its light rail network, using the same bog-standard railway-sized TBMs which have been used successfully all over the world for years, and these projects were completed on time and within budget. The premise of the Boring Company is that useful transportation infrastructure can be accomplished more cheaply by constructing even smaller, simpler tunnels with standardized tunneling machines. Their tunnels are literally just concrete tubes with concrete floors, and they are saving even more money by skipping the enormously expensive underground stations necessary with a traditional subway by using "skates" small enough to be shuttled back to the surface in an elevator. The Seattle project was enormously ambitious; the Boring Company plan is clearly designed to be as boring as possible.

kalleboo 8y ago

It took 17 months to bore the 17 km City Tunnel train tunnel in southern Sweden. But the City Tunnel is actually two tunnels not one (+ cross-passages), it's 3 times longer, and has twice the diameter. For the City Tunnel, the whole construction including 3 elaborate stations, all the traditional track infrastructure including 2 different signaling systems and connecting it to the existing rail took 5 years. That's probably the part the Boring Company is trying to save on, not so much the actual tunneling.