Mammoth "Metal Moles" Tunnel Deep Beneath London 294
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that the first of eight highly specialized Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM), each weighing nearly 1,000 tonnes, is being positioned at Royal Oak in west London where it will begin its slow journey east. It will carve out a new east-west underground link that will eventually run 73 miles from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. Described as 'voracious worms nibbling their way under London,' the 150-meter long machines will operate 24 hours a day and move through the earth at a rate of about 100m per week, taking three years to build a network of tunnels beneath the city's streets. Behind a 6.2-meter cutter head is a hydraulic arm. Massive chunks of earth are fed via a narrow-gauge railway along the interior of the machine, which is itself on wheels, as the machines are monitored from a surface control room which tracks their positions using GPS. Hydraulic rams at the front keep them within millimeters of their designated routes. 'It's not so much a machine as a mobile factory,' says Roy Slocombe, adding that the machine is staffed by a 20-strong 'tunnel gang' and comes with its own kitchen and toilet. Meanwhile, critics complain that the project is a peculiarly British example of how not to get big infrastructure schemes off the ground, because almost 30 years will have elapsed from its political conception in 1989 to its current projected completion date of 2018."
Mind you, if they run into voids, we're in trouble (Score:4, Funny)
Meh. (Score:4, Funny)
Call me when they can load one up on a big green supersonic aircraft and deploy it anywhere in the world on a moment's notice.
Dune (Score:3, Funny)
We may as well get all of the Dune references out of the way here in this one thread.
Re:Why exaggerate? (Score:4, Funny)
TIL 140 metres = 150 meters. It's not just a wonky British spelling.
Re:comparative position? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why exaggerate? (Score:5, Funny)
Was 140 meters not impressive enough, so the submitter had to add 10 meters?
He's a guy - exaggerating a bit about length is reflexive.
Re:Why exaggerate? (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously the submitter is American and did the conversion from British-meters to American-meters.
Re:"Peculiarly British" (Score:4, Funny)
" . . . well, instead of a Mammoth Metal Mole, we could build this Giant Wooden Rabbit . . . "
Re:Whitechapel (Score:2, Funny)
The place is a complete dump.
To be fair, many people not from London would say the same about all of our illustrious capital.
Re:Why exaggerate? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:comparative position? (Score:5, Funny)
It has more gaps than any other system - you have to constantly mind them.
That's why I prefer the Moscow Metro. Because there, the gap minds you.
Rules Change Re:Whitechapel (Score:5, Funny)
They had to add the stop because the Alternate Thursday Rule, when applied in conjunction with the Left-Hand Turns Only Method, caused too many people to end up in the middle of the Thames.
Re:Whitechapel (Score:4, Funny)
Whitechapel already has a station with 3 lines.
In fact, you know that things are strange in Whitechapel, because the underground trains run overground, and the overground trains run underground.