[HN Gopher] The Evolution of Tunnel Boring Machines
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The Evolution of Tunnel Boring Machines
Author : jseliger
Score : 58 points
Date : 2023-10-10 20:15 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.construction-physics.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.construction-physics.com)
| jcims wrote:
| Sometimes when I'm stuck in construction traffic I wish someone
| would invent the Highway Widening Machine. A machine that in one
| fell swoop can grind, grade, prep, pour and paint a new lane into
| a road.
| digging wrote:
| A common but misguided desire.
| soperj wrote:
| Would be a lot cheaper and more permanent to just have other
| modes of transportation.
| kortilla wrote:
| Unfortunately just severely less useful in the majority of
| the US.
| ttyyzz wrote:
| Funnily enough, my father is at the 11th international symposium
| on "Ground Freezing" in London at this very moment. Most of the
| time you have to freeze the ground before you can drill.
|
| He has been working in specialist civil engineering for many
| years and builds tunnels all over the world. He has told me many
| exciting and hard-to-believe stories about tunnel construction
| and tunnel boring machines.
|
| E.g. during the work on the Eurotunnel. Here the British tunnel
| boring machine was diverted into the rock near half the length of
| the tunnel and left there. It was cheaper than somehow taking it
| out again.
|
| Anyways, since my dad is always very stressed due to his job, I
| am happy to have gained a foothold in IT and not tunnel boring :D
| kortilla wrote:
| You could have added a boring pun to this boring comment.
| teruakohatu wrote:
| > During construction of the Hudson River Tunnel in 1889, 25% of
| the workers died from decompression sickness.
|
| Less interesting but of far greater value to humanity has been
| the innovation in heath and safety regulations.
|
| According to this article [1] one worker died per foot of the
| Hudson River Tunnel.
|
| > In 1906, attitudes toward the sandhogs changed after a series
| of accidents beneath the East River. Blown-out tunnels put the
| dangers of the profession on display in a way few New Yorkers
| could ignore, and the Progressive-Era press worked to publicize
| them. Suddenly, sandhogs were big news, and people started to
| complain about their high death rates.
|
| [1] https://daily.jstor.org/the-sandhogs-who-built-the-new-
| york-...
| bilsbie wrote:
| Why can't we copy how tree roots or worms tunnel?
| atoav wrote:
| Because we need a straight tunnel in a year and not a winded
| one in a few decades?
| teruakohatu wrote:
| The article addresses this. The early tunnel boring machines
| were inspired by worms that bore through wood.
| DFHippie wrote:
| Well, shipworms, which are actually clams.
| psd1 wrote:
| Because biology is hard to replicate with machines. But even if
| we could, it wouldn't be useful, because we want to burrow
| where we choose and leave behind a usable tunnel.
| IshKebab wrote:
| We probably can if you want to build 1 inch tunnels that go in
| random directions...
| dieselgate wrote:
| Very cool article as someone who has had little to no exposure on
| this topic.
|
| A very interesting youtube channel [1] I recently came across is
| Cutting Edge Engineering Australia - they do mostly heavy
| equipment repair/fab.
|
| Some common tools used are air-arc gougers for clean and rapid
| removal of material along with mill/lathe machining. Had never
| really considered the conceptual transfer over to something like
| tunnel boring (air powered debris and rotational removal) but it
| seems similar.
|
| [1] Repair & Upgrade DAMAGED Bucket for 30T Excavator | Gouging &
| Welding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzi7eOr-3lA
| jcims wrote:
| Holy cow it's a small world. I just subbed to that channel last
| week. Love seeing someone so practical and capable and the
| bloopers at the end are a lot of fun.
| mmanfrin wrote:
| It's essentially a long ad for the company that makes the
| machines, but this video (and some of the others they've put out)
| are _fascinating_ and describe the whole process of tunnel making
| (with a very high production value):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AV2NcyX7pk
| andbberger wrote:
| Marti is unmatched. Herrenknecht also puts out some nice
| material
| greazy wrote:
| Thanks for sharing this was fascinating. Some of the music is
| very heist-movie.
| pugworthy wrote:
| That was an entertaining and educating read. I had not realized
| just how relatively recent rock tunneling advancements were.
|
| Also the idea of adding grout between the rough bored tunnel and
| the tunnel lining - what a great way to create a full physical
| connection given the probable irregularities of the tunnel.
| aaron695 wrote:
| [dead]
| rolph wrote:
| this is likely to become critical tech in the coming years.
| peterpost2 wrote:
| How is this not already critical tech?
| rolph wrote:
| we dont have to abandon the surface quite yet, but soon
| atoav wrote:
| If you're talking about climate change, the number one
| threat is going to be food.
|
| Climate change is correlated with worse crops because it
| brings more droughts and harsher weather extremes and this
| will become a real problem.
| rolph wrote:
| yes crops will have to be included, as well as a, cohort
| of supportive biotypes.
|
| very much a noahs ark scenario, but we may best use a
| number of avenues, such as exoplanetary colonies.
| ben_w wrote:
| There is nothing that we can do to this planet that would
| render the environment a tenth as inhospitable as any
| known other planet.
|
| IIRC we've not even found one that has free oxygen in the
| atmosphere yet. Even if we did, anything with that and
| water would be extremely exiting by the standards of
| exoplanets, even if it had an average temperature of 75 C
| which would kill humans.
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