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Seattle's Behemoth Boring Machine, Idle Since 2013, Makes Some Progress
After being blocked by an obstruction ("the object") which left it idle just over two years ago, repair work has continued on Bertha, Seattle's enormous tunnel-boring machine. Now, reports KOMO News and The Seattle Times, Bertha is once again ready to work. From The Times' coverage:
Tuesday morning's push of one and a half feet provided Seattle Tunnel Partners (STP) enough space behind Bertha’s drive motors to fasten the next concrete ring at the 1,085-foot mark of the planned 9,270-foot tube. Chris Dixon, STP project manager, is calling this a testing phase. The team is measuring how Bertha responds while rotating through heavy loads of compacted sand. Last week, a fixed steel arm in the front end broke and needed a one-day repair. ... This week’s two-day push would leave the nose of the drill just short of the north edge of the concrete vault, dug in 2014 so STP could reach and lift the 4million-pound front end for repairs. The winning bid from STP called for the tunnel to be completed this month.
Boring.
Well, I guess if it hasn't done anything since 2013 it is certainly a machine capable of boring even a behemoth!
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From the headline, I thought this was going to be an article about Microsoft.
Another boring story on slashdot.
I understand that when it hit the metal casing, it overheated. Couple of questions I've got that after looking, didn't find the answer:
I thought this was capable of boring through rock, how come it couldn't go through a metal pipe? Ok, it can't go through the pipe, how could this thing not have tons of sensors capable of detecting the overheating issue?
Seattle's taxpayers have to be the most stupid motherfuckers on Earth.
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Another boring story on slashdot.
You know the drill..
I seem to remember that they hit a pipe and keep drilling, even though the pipe had been identified and listed in the contract?
Get it? LOL hahahahaha
Yes. But the path of the tunnel runs through what is essentially an old land fill. So the machine should have been designed to deal with old steam boilers, scrap iron, chunks of concrete/rebar, etc.
Have gnu, will travel.
Let's see if they can fail as badly as this project. There's still plenty of opportunity.
As a Seattleite, Bertha has been a huge, expensive disappointment so far, but we all hope in our hearts that eventually this *&$%@ thing will get the job done.
And maybe, just maybe they'll come away with some lessons learned form this kabillion dollar, 0.5mph joyride.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
What was blocking the tunnel machine? It was the shallowest part of the tunnel. It could be an iron ship sunk 100 or 150 years ago.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
of private industry doing it better than government. Sitting around for two years doing nothing and still getting paid. What a job.
Sounds a lot like insurance companies. Force people to pay up but never do the thing you've been paid to do. The greatest scam on Earth, next to religion.
Don't worry Seattle taxpayers, this private company will use as much of your tax dollars as it takes to get the job done.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
On paper you may be correct. But in real life, the "machine" did 1 mile in nearly 3 years. The theory doesn't survive reality. You can't build a real tunnel with "it should work"s.
Compare this to the Panama Canal: 48 miles in 10 years, with the most advanced tech being steam-powered excavating machines. Not underground, but there was a mountain to go through, water to deal with, and all the jungle stuff (diseases, insects, animals).
This Seattle thing is the worst case ever of machine worshipping and engineering mental masturbation.
lucm, indeed.
Whatever happened to using good old dynamite to clear the obstruction?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Yes. But the path of the tunnel runs through what is essentially an old land fill. So the machine should have been designed to deal with old steam boilers, scrap iron, chunks of concrete/rebar, etc.
It should have been designed so it could have been repaired in place if it broke. Currently waiting for it to break down again under some skyscraper in downtown.
I'm guessing the poster is a native-born Seattlite, since s/he uses "The Times" to refer to the The Seattle Times, seemingly unaware the this means The New York Times or The London Times to most of the world. I lived in Seattle a couple of times, and it was clear that most people there thought that Seattle was the center of world. It wasn't and it isn't, but I wish them luck with their tunnel.
No, the tunnel goes BELOW the landfill. The pipe was left from a prior geological survey.
This week a broken steel arm in the front end was fixed.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.