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> Then came the grand promises. Boring unveiled another machine, dubbed Prufrock, and said it could work six times as fast and tunnel a full mile per week. Five

> Then came the grand promises. Boring unveiled another machine, dubbed Prufrock, and said it could work six times as fast and tunnel a full mile per week. Five people who’ve seen the machine in action say that’s nowhere near how things worked out, particularly with the latest version, Prufrock 2, which dug the Encore tunnel. Although the machine could dig faster in theory, they say, it required more employees to manage it. Including pre-tunneling prep work, it took 18 months to finish the first section of the Loop, totaling 1.7 miles of tunnel, then another year to build the spur connecting the convention center with Resorts World, giving the company a rough speed of 1 mile of tunnel per year. Lax safety, and they aren't even going fast.

JojoFatsani 3y ago
I often wonder if they should just, you know, have a bunch of guys down there digging. These TBM projects seem to rack up a lot of overhead and delays anyway (granted that is a part of the business model for a lot of the big design build houses..)
- quantified 3y ago
  Sort of like the dancer in the robot suit. Absolutely.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  This isn't normal TBM performance; they'd be better off just hiring an experienced engineering company.
defrost 3y ago
For comparison figures, Tideway, in the UK, completed 25km (15.5 miles) of deep sewer tunnel in roughly 3 and half years of tunneling (start to finish). That's about 4.4 miles per year. The qualifications are * these were both alongside and perpindicular to the Thames River in the vicinity of London .. so that's the soil type for those that want to chase that up. * they had more than one machine operating. * the times and figures likely including the time to build deep drop shafts to lower the TBM's down to and to cross connect to other sewer infrastructure .. YMMV See: https://www.geplus.co.uk/uncategorised/tideway-celebrates-end-of-tunnelling-29-04-2022/ https://www.geplus.co.uk/uncategorised/tideway-celebrates-en... Tideway's first tunnel boring machine (TBM) was launched in November 2018, followed by a further three TBMs working on the main tunnel and two on the connection tunnels. Today (29 April 2022) marks the last day of tunnelling on the major scheme. The now complete 25km sewer tunnel runs from east to west London and is around 70m at its deepest. Construction has been taking place at 24 sites across the city.
- rsynnott 3y ago
  Even worse, this (the Musk one) is a 4m wide tunnel, apparently single bore. Tideway is 7.2m, single bore. The channel tunnel, which took 6 years for 50km, is 7.6m, two bore.
  - defrost 3y ago
    Adding insult to injury, while the Tideway project was ongoing the UK London area underground rail system was also being upgraded with new stations and track section requiring more TBM work of the same or perhaps greater order. So the total London area TBM work during the past decade is pretty substantial and makes the work by Musk's company during that period pale in comparison.
  - ianburrell 3y ago
    I find it interesting how Boring Co talks about how they are faster and cheaper than subway tunnels because they are digging 12ft ones. Except that the London Underground deep tube tunnels are close to 12ft diameter. Those are cramped and nothing anyone would build today, but they work. They could totally fit some little automated trains or people movers to make a usuable transit system. Instead of using cars with drivers like they do now, or coming up with a self-driving system.

JojoFatsani 3y ago

I often wonder if they should just, you know, have a bunch of guys down there digging. These TBM projects seem to rack up a lot of overhead and delays anyway (granted that is a part of the business model for a lot of the big design build houses..)

quantified 3y ago
Sort of like the dancer in the robot suit. Absolutely.
rsynnott 3y ago
This isn't normal TBM performance; they'd be better off just hiring an experienced engineering company.

defrost 3y ago

For comparison figures, Tideway, in the UK, completed 25km (15.5 miles) of deep sewer tunnel in roughly 3 and half years of tunneling (start to finish). That's about 4.4 miles per year. The qualifications are * these were both alongside and perpindicular to the Thames River in the vicinity of London .. so that's the soil type for those that want to chase that up. * they had more than one machine operating. * the times and figures likely including the time to build deep drop shafts to lower the TBM's down to and to cross connect to other sewer infrastructure .. YMMV See: https://www.geplus.co.uk/uncategorised/tideway-celebrates-end-of-tunnelling-29-04-2022/ https://www.geplus.co.uk/uncategorised/tideway-celebrates-en... Tideway's first tunnel boring machine (TBM) was launched in November 2018, followed by a further three TBMs working on the main tunnel and two on the connection tunnels. Today (29 April 2022) marks the last day of tunnelling on the major scheme. The now complete 25km sewer tunnel runs from east to west London and is around 70m at its deepest. Construction has been taking place at 24 sites across the city.

rsynnott 3y ago
Even worse, this (the Musk one) is a 4m wide tunnel, apparently single bore. Tideway is 7.2m, single bore. The channel tunnel, which took 6 years for 50km, is 7.6m, two bore.
- defrost 3y ago
  Adding insult to injury, while the Tideway project was ongoing the UK London area underground rail system was also being upgraded with new stations and track section requiring more TBM work of the same or perhaps greater order. So the total London area TBM work during the past decade is pretty substantial and makes the work by Musk's company during that period pale in comparison.
- ianburrell 3y ago
  I find it interesting how Boring Co talks about how they are faster and cheaper than subway tunnels because they are digging 12ft ones. Except that the London Underground deep tube tunnels are close to 12ft diameter. Those are cramped and nothing anyone would build today, but they work. They could totally fit some little automated trains or people movers to make a usuable transit system. Instead of using cars with drivers like they do now, or coming up with a self-driving system.