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Elon Musk Says Boring Company Will Sell 'Lego-Like' Kits of Excavated Rock (theverge.com)
Elon Musk says his Boring Company will sell "interlocking bricks" made from the rock that its tunnel-creating machines excavate from the ground. In other words, think Lego, he says, except giant, heavy, and made of Earth. The Verge reports: Musk says that the Boring Company will sell "kits" of bricks, starting with one that makes it easy to build things from "ancient Egypt," like replicas of the pyramids, the Sphinx, or the Temple of Horus. The bricks will be "lifesize," though it's not clear what that actually means. And they'll be bored through the middle, to save some weight, but still rated to withstand California's earthquakes. (As is typical, Musk announced the idea in freewheeling fashion on Twitter.) t's unclear when these bricks, or the kits, will be available or how much they'll cost. The Boring Company is currently only digging short, preliminary tunnels in California and Maryland, so there's presumably not enough to start selling any of this upturned rock just yet. But the small company has big plans for tunnels around the country meant to facilitate debatably futuristic modes of transportation, so there will be plenty of newly removed earth if even half of those ever come to fruition.
They're going to pour the slurry into molds and sell it.
It makes sense, because instead of disposing of the earth (which is quite expensive) he's getting people to pay him for it. That's pretty clever any way you slice it.
Elon has not met the Uniform Building Code which dictates not only materials but rate of production for building materials in the US. The bricks and mortar kind of code is a product of the San Francisco bricklayers union based upon production of 80 bricks per hour. ANYTHING that poses a threat to that hallowed sanctuary for union labor in the US is an impossibly expensive process.
Getting new innovative product introduced in the US is so cumbersome that you must go to EU to see what the future looks like. There styrofoam blocks erect a building in hours and cement filled with rebar the same day. A completed structure in 24 hours. THAT is a threat to unions. German engineers could not get approval in the US for the styrofoam insulated interlocking building brick system.
Good luck Elon...