The Boring Company's LA test tunnel is almost complete
Today, Elon Musk announced via Twitter that the first Boring Company test tunnel under Los Angeles is almost finished. When it's complete, the system will be able to carry pedestrians, cyclists and private vehicles at speeds of 155 mph. People will be able to try the loop out for free at a special event at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA, on December 10th.
Also at LA Times, The Verge, and The Washington Post.
Previously: Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Elon Musk pitches $1, 150 MPH "Loop" Rides under Los Angeles
Related: Washington, D.C. Granted Elon Musk's Boring Company an Excavation Permit for Possible Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Company Wins Chicago O'Hare International Airport Transportation Contract
Elon Musk's Boring Bricks
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Elon Musk has released an image showing a tunnel under Hawthorne, California, near SpaceX's headquarters:
Musk's LA tunnel is a pilot project designed to test the feasibility of his plan to dig tunnels at a lower cost and more efficiently than current tunnel boring companies operate, with the eventual aim of supplying cities and regions with underground tunnel networks that can transport goods and services while avoiding surface obstacles and traffic.
The Boring Co. is still a long way from achieving the grand vision of constructing inter-city underground Hyperloop tubes for high-speed travel, but it's making rapid progress on its initial test digging and tunnel construction, which should go some way to proving to its detractors that this is more than just a pipe dream.
Also at Engadget and The Verge.
Previously: Elon Musk Wants to be Boring
Tunnel to 'Underworld' Discovered Beneath Mexican Pyramid
Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
NY-Philly-Baltimore-DC Hyperloop: Not Vaporware?
In November, Washington, D.C.'s Department of Transportation granted the Boring Company a permit to excavate at a parking lot within the city:
Washington, D.C., has issued a permit allowing Elon Musk's Boring Company to do preparatory and excavation work in what is now a parking lot north of the National Mall. The company says the site could become a Hyperloop station.
The permit, reported Friday by the Washington Post, was issued way back on November 29th of 2017. The permit is part of an exploratory push by the city's Department of Transportation, which according to a spokesperson is examining the feasibility of digging a Hyperloop network under the city. The Hyperloop is an as-yet theoretical proposal to use depressurized tubes and magnet-levitated pods to move passengers at very high speeds.
From The Washington Post:
Asked about the permit, issued Nov. 29, a Boring Company spokesman said Friday that "a New York Avenue location, if constructed, could become a station" in a broad network of such stops across the new system.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) visited the Boring Company in California this month, walking in a tunnel to learn more about the technology the company says will make tunneling faster and cheaper.
The District's Department of Transportation is figuring out what other permits the Boring Company would need to cut under city roads and other public spaces, according to Bowser's chief of staff, John Falcicchio.
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
NY-Philly-Baltimore-DC Hyperloop: Not Vaporware?
Related: Hyperloop Pod Competition Winner Exceeds 200mph (324 km/h)
Sir Richard Branson Invests in Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Elon Musk's Boring Company Sells Flamethrowers
Elon Musk pitches 150 MPH rides in Boring Company tunnels for $1
Earlier in the evening Musk retweeted an LA Metro tweet that said it's coordinating with The Boring Company on its test and said the two will be "partners" going forward. Much of what Musk discussed about how his concept in-city Loop would work has been answered in concept videos and the company's FAQ, but he specifically said that the plan is for rides that cost a $1, and carry up to 16 passengers through hundreds of tunnels to those small, parking space-size tunnels located throughout a city.
The big problem is digging those tunnels to start with, and while part of the session included video of a speedy test run through the tunnel Musk has already dug on SpaceX property, the plan is to pick up the pace. Davis said Musk has challenged his team to match the digging pace of a snail (0.03 MPH), and get up to 1/10th of the average walking speed of a human at about 0.3 MPH -- compared to its current top speed of about 0.003 MPH.
Previously: Elon Musk Wants to be Boring
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Elon Musk's Boring Co. Wins Chicago Airport High-Speed Train Bid
Elon Musk's Boring Co. is the winner in a bid to build a multibillion-dollar high-speed express train to O'Hare International Airport, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The result gives the young company a big boost in legitimacy as it tries to get transportation projects underway in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
The company beat out a consortium that included Mott MacDonald, the civil engineering firm that designed a terminal at London's Heathrow Airport, and JLC Infrastructure, an infrastructure fund backed by former basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson, said the people, who declined to be identified because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. The city is expected to announce the news as soon as Thursday, one person said.
It's a sizeable victory for a company that was launched just 18 months ago, is working with unproven futuristic ideas, and—aside from a test tunnel it is digging in the Los Angeles suburb Hawthorne, California—lacks construction experience.
Also at Chicago Tribune, CNBC, and The Verge.
Previously: Elon Musk to Compete for High-Speed Rail Loop in Chicago
Related: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
Washington, D.C. Granted Elon Musk's Boring Company an Excavation Permit for Possible Hyperloop
Elon Musk pitches $1, 150 MPH "Loop" Rides under Los Angeles
Elon Musk's Boring Company unveils bricks being produced from dirt dug in its tunnels
Elon Musk's Boring Company has been releasing side products mostly unrelated to the company's main purpose, like hats and flamethrowers. The latest product has more to do with boring tunnels since they plan on selling and/or giving away bricks made from dirt dug in the company tunnels.
The Boring Company is now showing a glimpse at how the bricks are being produced. They estimate that the cost of moving the dirt can represent up to 15% of the total cost of a tunnel, which is why they want to turn the dirt into a product itself.
Musk claimed that the bricks are more solid than cinderblocks and he suggested that the company could sell them for just 10 cents in order to get rid of the dirt.
Related: Company Proposes Giant Concrete 'Lego' Bricks to Build Houses 80% Faster
Washington, D.C. Granted Elon Musk's Boring Company an Excavation Permit for Possible Hyperloop
California's Efforts to Restrict Elon Musk's Flamethrowers Go Down in Flames
Elon Musk's Boring Company Wins Chicago O'Hare International Airport Transportation Contract
Local leaders cooling to Boring Company tunnel promises
Virginia state transit officials are telling The Boring Company "thanks but no thanks," at least for now. The Virginia Mercury reported yesterday that the state's chief of rail transportation, Michael McLaughlin, was not sufficiently impressed by his recent visit to Elon Musk's test tunnel in California to recommend that the state work with the startup.
"It's a car in a very small tunnel," McLaughlin reportedly told the state's Transportation Board public transit subcommittee this week. "If one day we decide it's feasible, we'll obviously come back to you," he added.
[...] In February, Musk tweeted that the company was working on improving its test tunnel. "Focus right now is getting to high speed, tight follow distance in test tunnel," the CEO tweeted. He said that "Line-Storm," The Boring Company's second-generation boring machine, would start getting updates "in a month or so."
But even as The Boring Company says it's trying to improve on tunneling efficiency and design, Chicago may be looking to take a step back from the express line that Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged to build with the company. The mayor's office announced in June 2018 that it would work with The Boring Company to build a long-awaited express line between O'Hare International Airport and the Windy City's downtown area.
Previously: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Washington, D.C. Granted Elon Musk's Boring Company an Excavation Permit for Possible Hyperloop
Elon Musk's Boring Company Wins Chicago O'Hare International Airport Transportation Contract
Elon Musk's Boring Bricks
The Boring Company Announces Dec. 10 Debut for First Los Angeles Tunnel
The Boring Company Won't Pursue Los Angeles Tunnel Under 405 Freeway
Elon Musk Startup Picked to Build Las Vegas 'People Mover'
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday October 23 2018, @11:06AM (14 children)
and all the others: stuck underground when the earthquake hit.
Not. me. thanks.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday October 23 2018, @11:42AM
The Japanese have an interesting seismic mesh network for that, given that seismic waves move really slow and light really fast, they can stop the train or at least minimize damage before the earthquake arrives in most cases.
(Score: 3, Funny) by canopic jug on Tuesday October 23 2018, @11:44AM (2 children)
Maybe he'll drill deeply directly along a major fault line and then announce that he'll run a connecting line to the coast...
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday October 24 2018, @05:54AM (1 child)
Or drill across the San Andreas fault in multiple locations and pull zip ties through the holes to stabilise things.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 25 2018, @04:24PM
Zip ties, the other Duck Tape.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:16PM
No need for thanks, you weren't invited anyway.
(Score: 3, Informative) by looorg on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:37PM (8 children)
As far as I can remember LA already has an underground railroad, a lot of it was above ground but there was underground stations to as I recall it. I don't think they have collapsed in any of the previous earthquakes so I'm not sure why Musks boring tunnel would.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:15PM (1 child)
I'm less optimistic than you, I guess. I think the big one still has to be experienced.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday October 23 2018, @07:35PM
Isn't the big one always sort of slightly beyond the horizon, one hits and it was "big" but it was never the "big one". The BIG ONE at this stage has to be earth shattering and apocalyptic.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:28PM (4 children)
But not the double-decker freeway that ran right next to it. A total of I think 65 people died in the Loma Prieta quake, all but a few of whom were on the lower deck. When I mention this now I am unable to escape the memory that one lady's life was saved when the first responders cut both her legs off with a power saw, and without anesthesia.
There are some tall buildings in Oakland, and there are lots of very tall buildings in San Francisco that were not damaged in any way by that quake.
One reason they weren't is that those buildings were specifically designed to survive earthquakes.
Many of the houses that were destroyed were built during the Great Depression when it was common to use beach sand in concrete. You don't want to do that because beach sand grains are worn smooth. If you make your concrete's sand by crushing up a big rock in a ball mill, its grains will have lots of nooks and crannies for the Portland Cement to adhere to;
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:49PM (1 child)
I don't know about sand wearing smooth. You may be right, you may be wrong. But, oceanfront beach sand contains sea salt. Salt is corrosive. During WW2, the Seabees built a lot of stuff in the Pacific, using beach sand in their concrete and mortar. They fully expected stuff to fall apart prematurely - and most of it did exactly that. There are ways to get around corrosion, but most of this wasn't in use during the world war era, not to mention that it would have been prohibitively expensive.
http://www.claisse.info/2013%20papers/data/e172.pdf [claisse.info]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 26 2018, @09:55PM
I talked to a Lebanese man a few years back. Where he lives all the houses are built out of concrete, up to three stories tall, with the first story usually built as a reinforced 'foundation' building so that other members of the family (usually sons) can build their own house on top of the parent's house as their own family grows.
He said one of the major problems will less reputable contractors there, especially in the regions nearer the coast, is the use of beach sand for construction instead of desert sand. The beach sand's salt interferes with the proper curing of the concrete and causes its strength to be much reduced compared to the desert sand, since Sodium Ions replace Calcium Ions in key concrete formations. He stated this was common knowledge among the literate in Lebanon, although the poor and some cheap rental owners would use those questionable contracts with the risk of the buildings collapsing.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday October 23 2018, @09:12PM (1 child)
The parts that fell were built on "made" ground*. The parts that held up were built on bedrock. If you mark a map of the areas where the worst damage occurred during the quake you will be mapping the areas of the city built on made ground. Such ground liquefies in a quake and tends to shake like jello.
*An area of dry land that has been made by people, generally through the reclamation of marshes, lakes, or shorelines. An artificial fill (landfill) is used, consisting of natural materials, refuse, etc.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:46AM
It parallels a river one block away, and had quite a lot of damage with two people killed. But elsewhere in Santa Cruz there wasn't much damage. One house was destroyed when its water heater set it on fire, but at my own place there was no damage at all.
When they rebuilt the St. George Hotel in downtown, they used a pile driver to drive extremely long concrete posts all the way down to the bedrock, then rested the new place's foundation on those posts.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:49PM
Regular train tunnels don't need to be nearly airtight to maintain a low-resistance environment.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:11PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:30PM
For example I lived in Pasadena when I attended Caltech, but nobody knows where Pasadena is so I usually say "I lived in LA".
There are dozens of cities in LA County.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:21PM (1 child)
http://www.weirdus.com/states/california/fabled_people_and_places/lizard_people/index.php [weirdus.com]
He wants to make contact...
Not that I've anything against our reptilian overlords, I live beside a port town where the denizens would be quite at home in Innsmouth...or Y'ha-nthlei...reptilians would be positively normal compared to this lot.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:34PM
Recall that he only got ten years, and that was for tax evasion. They never managed to pin a murder rap on him.
A while back someone got the idea that he had a vault underneath a certain street next to a certain building that Capone once owned but that construction on that street resulted in the vault being sealed off.
I'd love to spoil it for you but it's even better to watch Geraldo Rivera's TV show about it. I think it's this one: https://youtu.be/yNk1eUfJzx8 [youtu.be]
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:16PM (1 child)
Wasn't it supposed to do 760mph?
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday October 23 2018, @06:09PM
You're thinking of Hyperloop. This is just Musk's "I want to dig tunnels under L.A. traffic" idea. It was never meant to be Hyperloop-fast, at least not yet.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @05:48PM (2 children)
They are starting on Dec 10?
Do they plan to start at 10 as well? Or will they be late and start at 10:10?
Relevant? OCT 31 = DEC 25
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 23 2018, @06:28PM (1 child)
wat is this, numerology?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @07:12PM
Probably [riddlesbrainteasers.com]
But that makes it dec 10 == oct 12;
Huh?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday October 23 2018, @06:49PM
While the tunnel already has ROI questions attached (the elevator system really ruins the throughput), my question is about the speed.
Outside of a marketing gimmick, what's the point of trying to reach 155mph over such a short distance ? The time savings are negligible compared to a more reasonable/usual 60 to 100mph, and the added engineering constraints are pretty big...
Note to Musk, if he reads us (LOL): ditch the elevators, or at least optimize them via a rotating system, like an old 6-shooter or Gatling gun.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 23 2018, @07:19PM (1 child)
If the ROI pans out, wouldn't it be more useful to use the tunnels as aqueducts? California especially has been suffering drought a lot recently.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday October 23 2018, @11:12PM
Because tunnels make water once renamed to aqueducts?
(What good is a water pipe if the water is missing?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @08:00PM (2 children)
Is this the silly company that was going to build a long rescue sub that had a good chance of getting stuck in the cave in Thailand? Dealing with tunnels might not be one of their strengths
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @08:09PM
^ Look at the anon pedo guy
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 25 2018, @04:30PM
"Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids' soccer team." https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-thai-caves-boy-rescue-spacex-tesla-2018-7/ [businessinsider.com]
I would say it was more likely produced in the SpaceX facilities as it was mentioned that it was made of rocket parts. Same Guy, wrong company.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24 2018, @12:07AM
I can imagine a few Who's on first conversations occurring over that name.
Who do you work for?
The Boring Company.
Oh too bad. Are you looking for a new job?
No I love it here. I have no intention of leaving.
But you said it's boring?
Yes it is boring, and it actually can be pretty exciting at times.
Oh you like boring jobs?
This is my first boring job and I really enjoy it.
?
.
...
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