Posted on 03/07/2018 5:33:32 AM PST by BenLurkin
The City Council in Hawthorne, California voted four to one last night in favor of a plan from Elon Musk’s Boring Company to dig a two-mile-long underground test tunnel. The Boring Company, which operates from SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne outside Los Angeles, had until now only dug into and under its own private property. But the newly-approved extension will stretch beyond the company’s property line, with the tunnel running 44 feet below the public roads and utilities that surround SpaceX headquarters.
...
People who find themselves in the area won’t even notice that anything is happening, according to Brett Horton, the senior director of facilities and construction for SpaceX. He assured the Council and the members of the public that they won’t see, hear, or feel any of the digging. “They won’t even know we’re there,” he said, even though the giant boring machine will be right below the ground.
...
During the period of the meeting open for questions from the public, a citizen referenced the problems with collapsing soil that plagued the efforts to build a subway extension in North Hollywood in the 1990s. “What guarantees [do we have] that this doesn’t happen in Hawthorne?” he asked of the council, and of Horton.
Horton explained that the company thoroughly tests the soil and will provide the results to the city on a daily basis. If the ground moves so much as a half-inch in either direction, work will stop until a solution is found. Otherwise, if the public has any concerns, Horton said they can contact the city — or just come to SpaceX headquarters. “Our operations team is on site at the entrance shaft, so we’re easy to reach,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
Agreed. Best is simply minimum taxes + minimum spending.
Insofar as we’re not there and unlikely to get there any time soon, I’m inclined toward getting as many tax breaks for anyone we can.
I moved to So Calif in Feb 1964. I left So Calif in May of 1993. I lived thru the 1971quake. I rented my house for 2 more years, and it was in the 1994 quake. Luckily, minimal damage both times.
However, I can still vividly describe the 1971 quake hitting just as I was getting off the toilet, and getting ready to go to work. That house moved UP & DOWN-—Left & right—a good 2 + feet. It was daylight, and I certainly was wide awake. Friend’s house had every single dish thrown out of cupboards & the entire swimming pool emptied-—right thru his house, as both the back door & the front door were shaken open. He was trying to get his kids out of their bunk beds with water swirling around his legs. The VA hospital pancaked..and another hospital had one wing topple down, along with long term damage to the sewer systems in Sylmar.
I wouldn’t even ride in anything underground in So Cal. I seriously would tell Musk-—DO NOT DO THIS.
Yeah, they take some tax dollars, but they are so much more efficient in the use of those tax dollars than present and past government handout recipients, like Boeing, ULA, etc.
My interest is in the one peak-efficiency recipient of those dollars - the original owner who earned that money. That's what I like about President Trump's tax cut; I use the money I earned wisely because I had to work to generate that wealth. Leftists are proud to spend other people's money on any cause that redistributes wealth. Sometimes I feel like inefficiency is a feature and not a bug from their perspective. The less efficient, the better, because more money gets redistributed to their parasitic voters.
Surprised that the State of California hasn’t hired this company to build the tunnel under the proposed Trump Wall.
“The Boring company, while faster than conventional equipment”
It’s hard to believe he has a revolutionary method of boring. My suspicion is that he’s boring smaller tunnels.
Am I (taxpayer) paying for his boring?
This only works if the tunnel is straight down. Call it an oversized outhouse hole and fill accordingly.
Reminds me of either it was HG Wells or Jules Vernes novels of a boring machine drilling to the Center of the Earth.
Or the one with Doug McClure, and they find and underground world of brain washing pteradactyls.
Looks like it's time to take out the elephant gun.
He's giving us the shaft.
That’s funny.
Musk must be a democrat.
I saw what you did there.
I read that the commercial real estate surrounding the Gigafactory is already sold out. The local government is probably thrilled with their investment.
44 foot below roads and utilities sounds like 50 deep to me. The test tunnel they just finished was “30 foot wide” which could mean if the tunnel was constant radius, it could have a cover depth of 20’ to 50’ since the article is so imprecise.
A cover depth of 50’ for a 30’ wide tunnel is very modest unless tunnel is lined and reinforced.
Nothing is said about structural and geotechnical engineering designs and opinions by licensed registered professional engineers.being submitted.
Let us know if you ever come across some facts.
Tunnels, when designed properly, are known to be one of the safest places to be during an earthquake. From a structural safety standpoint, the tunnel moves uniformly with the ground, in contrast to surface structures. Additionally, a large amount of earthquake damage is caused by falling debris, which does not apply inside tunnels. Some examples:
1994 Northridge Earthquake: no damage to LA Subway tunnels
1989 Loma Prieta (Northern California) Earthquake: no damage to tunnels, which were then used to transport rescue personnel
1985 Mexico City Earthquake: no damage to tunnels, which were then used to transport rescue personnel
Tunnels, when designed properly, are known to be one of the safest places to be during an earthquake. From a structural safety standpoint, the tunnel moves uniformly with the ground, in contrast to surface structures. Additionally, a large amount of earthquake damage is caused by falling debris, which does not apply inside tunnels. Some examples:
1994 Northridge Earthquake: no damage to LA Subway tunnels
1989 Loma Prieta (Northern California) Earthquake: no damage to tunnels, which were then used to transport rescue personnel
1985 Mexico City Earthquake: no damage to tunnels, which were then used to transport rescue personnel
Tunnels, when designed properly, are known to be one of the safest places to be during an earthquake. From a structural safety standpoint, the tunnel moves uniformly with the ground, in contrast to surface structures. Additionally, a large amount of earthquake damage is caused by falling debris, which does not apply inside tunnels. Some examples:
1994 Northridge Earthquake: no damage to LA Subway tunnels
1989 Loma Prieta (Northern California) Earthquake: no damage to tunnels, which were then used to transport rescue personnel
1985 Mexico City Earthquake: no damage to tunnels, which were then used to transport rescue personnel
From the company’s FAQ:
Currently, tunnels are really expensive to dig, with some projects costing as much as $1 billion per mile. In order to make a tunnel network feasible, tunneling costs must be reduced by a factor of more than 10.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.