"Nannie"
It is 26 feet in diameter and about 400 feet long, weighing around 1,200 tons. The machine was used by Washington's water utility to dig a tunnel to prevent sewage from overflowing into the Anacostia River. 34 Musk's company, The Boring Company, is also working on other tunnelling innovations, such as:
- Porpoising. The TBM "porpoises" in and out of the ground, replacing the need for large excavations at the tunnel entrance and exit.
- Liner truck. An all-electric autonomous wheeled truck powered by Tesla motors and batteries is used to move tunnel lining segments into the tunnel.
- Continuous tunneling. The goal is to increase tunneling time from 11 hours to 24 hours by installing ring liners without stopping.
- Zero-people-in-tunnel. A machine that can tunnel with no people monitoring or working inside the tunnel, including erecting 12-ton ring cylinders.
