Comments on: Exciting boring video

By: Wesley

Wesley — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 17:10:00 +0000

My inner geekdom comes out. I found this fascinating. It’s a detailed break down of how large tunneling machines (TBM) work. They are freaking huge! One question I have that wasn’t addressed is what if they start tunneling through and archeological sensitive site like Pompeii or an old Shakespearean theater? Are there monitors or something for the composition of the excavated materials?

By: GawainLavers

GawainLavers — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 18:18:00 +0000

I liked it!

By: mexican cheese

mexican cheese — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:09:00 +0000

We would be oh so gay if words were used for good and not just to titillate us.

By: Doug Lucchetti

Doug Lucchetti — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:07:00 +0000

To paraphrase Richard Feynman, there’s plenty of room at the bottom, or just beneath our feet. It’s interesting to see SF is again taking the lead it once had in tunnel construction with the world’s leader Bechtel having it’s home there as it still does. The gigantic tunnel through Yerba Buena Island that connects the Oakland and SF sides of the Bay Bridge is still one of the engineering marvels of the age and shows that tunnels can be more than just worm holes suitable for walkways and narrow guage commuter trains. Anyone familiar with the city knows that its high aspect landscape has quite a few tunnels, some dating to the early days such as those around Ft Mason, and might suspect that it would be even better with a lot more. Think how nice VanNess, Franklin and Gough would be if no Highway 101 traffic was clogging it up all day and instead was travelling beneath Cathedral Hill…or if the Sunset were connected to the Bay Bridge via tunnel. Returning local streets to pedestrians and allowing business to thrive along the busy streets instead of having to hide from the noise, fumes and danger of busy surface streets will be a great benefit to SF and to any other city that can do the same.

By: mexican cheese

mexican cheese — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:03:00 +0000

“Elevator Music” in Seattle begat “Grunge”. Good or Bad?

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:30:00 +0000

I applied for a job I am well-qualified for as a geologist attached to tunneling projects, in China. Sounded awesome – tunnels and TBMs and China all fascinate me. Never heard back from them; bummed me out.

By: gero

gero — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 12:05:00 +0000

…which can, nevertheless, lead to hair-raising incidences, e.g.,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romerike_Tunnel#Leakages

Thanks for the book recommendation!

By: teapot

teapot — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 06:45:00 +0000

Some more tunneling porn for those addicted to such:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKtGhHQDv0k

Big, bigger, Biggest: Tunnels
(One of a handful of NatGeo offerings actually worth watching)

By: teapot

teapot — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 06:41:00 +0000

Words are cool… Don’t let dumbarses spoil your fun. The best fun is had in using uncommon words in group situations and watching people squirm as they try to reply without actually knowing what you said.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:41:00 +0000

One of the most fascinating, and frequently exciting, books I ever read was Tunnels, by Gosta Sandstrom, about the days when people were first learning how to build really long tunnels. Some of the stories, especially about massive tunnels through the Alps constructed entirely by drill and blast and caisson techniques are truly hair raising. Tunnel boring machines did away with all that. Now constructing tunnels is just very very tedious work.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 03:05:00 +0000

Because otherwise it would just be boring.

By: Charlie B

Charlie B — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 01:21:00 +0000

The last time I used “obviate” I got more abuse in return than the time I told someone not to be so niggardly. I guess if you’re a professional wordsmith you can get away with using proper English! I’m jealous.

By: Steve Wells

Steve Wells — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 01:02:00 +0000

So it’s not Dwarf-powered?

By: malindrome

malindrome — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:31:00 +0000

As Benjamin Franklin said, “If we don’t all drill together, we will surely drill separately.”

By: malindrome

malindrome — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:28:00 +0000

Derogatory nickname for this website?

By: Nadreck

Nadreck — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 23:24:00 +0000

Really makes you appreciate all the work that Lex Luthor had to do every time he used one of these to get out of jail.

By: Slowermo

Slowermo — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 23:07:00 +0000

I prefer to think of this as a robotic Tremor worm.

By: taras

taras — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 22:58:00 +0000

DRILLING TOGETHER FOR PROGRESS.

By: Teller

Teller — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 22:45:00 +0000

Thanks, A.

By: Florian Bösch

Florian Bösch — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:53:00 +0000

In order to avoid giving the impression of any kind of cultural or enthusiastic bias (such as pop music, rock, world, jazz, classic etc.) which could offend the taste of some stakeholder, you have to find music that is devoid of any of the characteristics usually found in music. As a result you end up with the equivalent of airport or elevator music, a kind of soothing ambient noise designed to be nothing whatsoever.

By: Palomino

Palomino — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:48:00 +0000

When Seattle had its bus tunnels bored, they had the machine on display for awhile. This video helped me realize I only saw the machine’s head, not the entire engineering masterpiece.

By: Alex Williams

Alex Williams — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:46:00 +0000

TBM’s are assembled on site inside of a launching pit (generally reused as station boxes). In Barcelone the tunnels were large enough to actually house the station platforms. So the only surface excavation was an approximately 100′ diameter shaft down. I have a picture somewhere of a TBM breaking into one of these shafts. I will try to find it…

By: Alex Williams

Alex Williams — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:42:00 +0000

I’m a tunneling engineer, TBM’s are why I got into tunneling! They are amazing machines and going inside one never gets old.

By: semiotix

semiotix — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:21:00 +0000

I see your exciting boring video and raise you a boring exciting video.

By: Gary61

Gary61 — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:20:00 +0000

Holey Borehole!

By: RadioSilence

RadioSilence — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 21:18:00 +0000

I’ve always wondered exactly how those machines work. Now I know, thanks BB!

By: Teller

Teller — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:41:00 +0000

A-mazing. Thanks, Cory. Somebody tell me how they get this EPB into the ground. Excavate, lower, assemble and go?

By: Finnagain

Finnagain — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:34:00 +0000

Boring boring video.

By: tristan eldritch

tristan eldritch — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:27:00 +0000

I hope you’re pleased with yourself, you oxymoron.

By: k0an

k0an — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:27:00 +0000

Best blog post title I’ve seen in a while :)