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Crossrail: The monster tunnelling under London streets
- matthewmacleod 11y agoI'm fascinated by the idea of exploring the underground layout of cities interactively in 3D. Is there anything that offers that experience? I expect geographic data might be available for tube lines, for example.
- lucaspiller 11y agoStation Viewer has 3D diagrams of a few stations: http://stations.aeracode.org http://stations.aeracode.org
- Brakenshire 11y agoThere are 3D tube maps: http://brunoimbrizi.com/experiments/#/07 http://brunoimbrizi.com/experiments/#/07 https://vimeo.com/67869313 https://vimeo.com/67869313 (last one seems to be only available as a video) Also, just as a tangential point, you may be interested in the BBC documentary from last week about underground spaces in Rome, which was excellent. It's called "Rome's Invisible City", and there are a couple of copies on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QAaYi0Zt4I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QAaYi0Zt4I
- andyjohnson0 11y agoInteresting article. I was surprised by how mature and automated the technology was, given how relatively few tunnelling operations of this scale have been attempted. Also, the concrete slabs, and presumably therefore the tunnel, have a projected lifespan of 120 years [1]. I wonder what use the tunnels will be put to in 2120? [1] http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/Concrete-segments-produced-for-Crossrail http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/Concrete-seg...
- JonnieCache 11y ago>I wonder what use the tunnels will be put to in 2120? Being as the tube opened in 1863, I guess the same one :)
- andyjohnson0 11y agoIf it turns out that we're still using underground trains in 100+ years time then that would be interesting in itself. Hyperloop [1] maybe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop
- eterm 11y agoWhat good is hyperloop for cross-city travel? People in 1915 were I am sure imagining a future of personal flying machines which they were confident would be in operation by 2015. Here we are, still cramming into the same tubes that people were travelling in (albeit probably less crammed) over 150 years ago.
- oxalo 11y agoReminded me of a Peter Thiel quote reference in [0]: 'We wanted flying cars and instead we got 140 characters.' Flying cars were a means to an end; we got a similar end, we just found a different means. [0]: https://medium.com/@timrpeterson/140-characters-is-as-good-as-flying-cars-and-maybe-better-b14dcc7782c4 https://medium.com/@timrpeterson/140-characters-is-as-good-a...
- easytiger 11y agoHyperlopp is very very low density comapred to a tube network. It would destroy the capacity
- rayiner 11y agoWould it? We've been using basically the same electric subway technology for more than 120 years already. We might have something different in another 100 years, or we might not. Note that if anything, the pace of progress in mechanical arts is slower now than it was in the late 19th century.
- pjc50 11y agorelatively few tunnelling operations of this scale have been attempted More than you think, I suspect; TBMs are a fairly mature technology. Crossrail is not as impressive as the Channel Tunnel, which is a major feat of alignment as it was tunneled from both directions to meet in the middle.
- andyjohnson0 11y ago"More than you think, I suspect" That is very likely. Wikipedia has a list of long tunnels [1]. And "Tunnel Talk" lists what the world's "mega TBMs" are up to [2] (frustratingly they quote tunnel diameters but not lengths). Seems like these machines are kept very busy, which makes sense given their cost. Edit: Even more tunnel-related stuff at http://tunnelbuilder.com/ http://tunnelbuilder.com/ [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_tunnels_in_the_world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_tunnels_in_the_... [2] http://www.tunneltalk.com/Discussion-Forum-Mega-TBMs.php http://www.tunneltalk.com/Discussion-Forum-Mega-TBMs.php
- darkr 11y ago> Seems like these machines are kept very busy, which makes sense given their cost. Interestingly, many TBMs are left underground forever, as it's often more expensive to disassemble and remove them then to just abandon them.
- Animats 11y agoThat's only done when you have a meet between two TBMs coming from opposite directions, and there's no way to get them out. Only for very long tunnels is that necessary. For most TBM jobs, you get the TBM back when it breaks though at the end of the job. After refurbishing, they're good for another job. Go to TunnelTalk.com for the best deals on used TBMs.[1] [1] http://www.tunneltalk.com/Equipment-Sales.php http://www.tunneltalk.com/Equipment-Sales.php
- omh 11y agoSeems like these machines are kept very busy I believe that many of them are actually single-use. Some (or perhaps all?) of the Crossrail TBMs are being buried at the end of their tunnel. Apparently the effort of removing them isn't worth their resale value? That tunnel talk page does mention that several TBMs are being reused though so perhaps this is changing with newer/larger machines.
- mauricemir 11y agoInteresting I was walking near mansion house (in the City) yesterday and could feel something rumbling underneath my feet through the pavement which I assume was Crossrail.
- justincormack 11y agoMore likely the underground I would think.
- jblok 11y agoMost likely that was the circle/district line. It's only one flight of stairs down from Cannon Street and Mansion House. Not sure how many metres, but it isn't far down at all.
- cxz 11y agoSomeone managed to run between them actually, leaving the train at Mansion House and catching up to it again at Cannon Street! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH_Z8Ghuq6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH_Z8Ghuq6E
- tobylane 11y agoSome of the older lines such as the Met and District are subsurface rather than deep. I believe some roads can't take truck based cranes because the tube is only 5m below.
- kitd 11y agoThe BBC did a fascinating series of programmes on Crossrail over the winter. At one point, the new tunnel was being cut past an existing underground station (I forget which one). It had to be threaded in 3D between a few access tunnels carrying passengers on their way up or down, and at one stage came within 5-6 feet of them, all without them knowing. Edit: for those who can access it http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04b7h1w http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04b7h1w
- teh_klev 11y agoI watched that series and can highly recommend it.
- jsingleton 11y agoIt was Tottenham Court Road station when they were boring under Soho Square. It had to go below the escalators but above the Northern Line.
- kitd 11y agoThat's the one. Thanks!
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- smackfu 11y agoIt looks like it isn't even on iPlayer, for some ridiculous reason I'm sure. So the only source is YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITcQMiJkppM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITcQMiJkppM (Of course, that might be blocked in the UK, because they do that sometimes.)
- karlshea 11y agoThis was great, thanks!
- Graham24 11y agoyou wait to crossrail 2 if that ever happens, the same sort of thing, but from the SW to the NE.
- Eric_WVGG 11y agoReading about this sucked me into an hour of reading about Seattle’s “Bertha” debacle. If you want to hear about a parallel universe account of a project like this going straight to hell… disaster predicted: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/what-could-possibly-go-wrong/Content?oid=4399657 http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/what-could-possibly-go-wr... disaster realized: http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/12/16/guest-editorial-seattle-pull-the-plug-on-the-tunnel-unless-you-can-answer-these-seven-questions http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/12/16/guest-e...
- curtis 11y agoI think claiming that the "disaster" has been "realized" is premature. They're repairing the tunnel boring machine now. If they are able to restart the machine and complete the tunnel, then is it a disaster? Heck, even if they end up completing the tunnel several years late and a billion dollars over-budget, it still wouldn't be a disaster.
- Eric_WVGG 11y agoI hope you're right, but they've experienced all these problems and setbacks and got only 10% of the tunnel dug. The remaining 90% of the dig had better be nearly problem free or maybe even hollow...
- chrismcb 11y agoConsidering there were cheaper, easier alternatives, then yeah it is a disaster.
- dvdcxn 11y agoWhile it is pretty cool, Crossrail and HS2 piss me off to no end as despite being an project that only affects england, the entire UK foots the bill. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scottish taxpayers foot the bill, under the pretense that this affects the entire UK, that it is a project that benefits the whole country. And that's half right, most cities untouched by these projects have been predicted to lose out economically, as the south east beast grows ever more engrossing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24589652 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24589652
- growse 11y agoSo you're saying infrastructure projects which definitively cannot benefit everywhere equally should never be funded by central taxation?
- jamescun 11y agoThey are probably referring more to infrastructure projects being disproportionately focused on the south east, rather than only executing infrastructure project with macro economic effects.
- growse 11y agoCrossrail, I can understand - it overtly benefits London alone. However, given that one of HS2's main objectives is to free up freight capacity on the WCML which benefits most places from London up through to the North West and beyond, I'm struggling to see parent post's perspective.