The current plan for the California High Speed Rail (CA HSR) is to dig up to 36 miles of tunnels under the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountains. Digging through solid granite a modern tunnel boring machine (TBM) can manage 100 to 200 feet a day.
The rock in the California mountains is affected by major fault lines and the composition is mixed and complex. Experts estimate they could advance 10 feet a day.
Cost projections are continually rising and have already doubled from the original price tag sold to voters to $68 billion today. This is before the first shovel of earth being moved.
I’m feeling ghoulish as Halloween approaches. Anyone want to start a betting pool on how many workers die for each mile of tunnel construction?
“Digging through solid granite a modern tunnel boring machine (TBM) can manage 100 to 200 feet a day.”
That’s what the experts thought when digging the tunnel in Seattle with the boring machine called “Big Bertha.” Old Bertha broke down, bored into something that tore Big Bertha up. Took them months and months to get Big Bertha back into action and millions of dollars later. Problem these days, there’s no cheap Chinese labor to build the train tunnels like during the gold rush days over Donner Pass in California. Might hire some Mexicans, but doubt they are willing to work as hard.
As if this will really work, haven’t these idiots heard of Big Bertha the tunnel borer in Seattle and all its problems in digging a tunnel under downtown Seattle. Keep on digging, you’re just digging another taxpayer funded rat hole to nowhere. Who knows, maybe it’ll a make great fallout shelter when the big one hits but probably not. Another Clusterf**k Enterprises undertaking designed to separate taxpayers from their hard earned money. When’s some idiot gonna dig a hole under the Pacific Ocean to Asia? They could call it the Pan Asia tunnel, Punnel or Pannel for short.
Already over projected budget sold to “voters”.
Shit, who could have predicted that? Never mind that, build it anyway because it’s good for a labor force that doesn’t exist anymore.
Remember all those people not looking for employment these days don’t really exist anyway, just a conservative lie to make the nagger look bad.
Anyway, it’s a green project that should be built no matter the cost or the damage to the environment. Granite has feelings to.
No hard feelings granite but us puny humans think we can do anything we want, so there. But just wait until Ma Gaia gets pissed off and takes revenge on us by creating a whole bunch of Godzilla like monsters out of the bowels of the earth to wreak havoc on humanity.
Isn’t it interesting how “The Party of Science” blithely ignores what California is famous for — fault lines and earthquakes, especially when that science gets in the way of their “earth-friendly” green agenda?
HAHAHAHAHAhahahahaha
What a bunch of hypocritical retards! These morons think they can legislate away nature.
Exit question: what is the difference between this type of digging and fracking? Force the libtards to discuss and defend their position.
Panama Canal- useful. (Thanks, T.R.)
Interstate highways- useful. (Thanks, Ike.)
This boondoggle? So squirrels can haul ass to Frisco?
Don’t make me laugh.
The idiots allowed Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power plant to be built near fault lines. Like Fukishima (sp), it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Even the Bay Bridge is in big trouble with cable and bolt failures. I refuse to drive over it. With a 90% chance of the big one hitting California, no one will own up to their mistakes.
but no way will the allow fracking, cause that cause earth quakes and stuff
Padding the pockets of the mega rich. Diane Feinstein’s husband’s company got the first mutli-hundred million dollar contract to lay the rails for the first 200 miles between Fresno and Nowhere. Just laying rails.
And no one lost a job.
Same idiots who swear fracking causes earthquakes more than willing to bore tunnels. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
They’re digging holes all right – – big fucking rat holes in which to throw money down.
36 miles at 10 feet per day? That’s a shade over 52 years….
LOLOLOLOL!!!
They might do better digging for water. Seeing as they want to live in what is actually a desert.
If there is a link between a failed project and a politician, politician should have to do hard time at Leavenworth. America could be turned around in one election cycle.
San Francisco to Burbank, less than an hour, under $100 Southwest Air.
I know it’s not about that.
All that digging and no environmental concerns? The EPA is worried about puddles on people’s property, unless of course it’s for a left wing agenda.
All disastrous projections by libtards are always pre-figured automatically to happen at least 10-20 years after any said libtard is already dead from natural (or unnatural) means.
The best tunnel digging route would be straight through the San Andreas fault. Comon’ Sparky Brown! Make it happen!
Ya know Zonga I live here and still have not figured it out. Not even Jerry Fing Brown is this stupid. A monument to the Brown one? I don’t get it. Opposition is YUGE. As usual it got rammed down our throats by a mysterious voting pool.
Si.
Arrest her
Please!
Jesse “The Retard” ventura got his damn choo choo train here in Minneapolis so what’s stopping the moron from Cali getting his San Andreas fault high speed death tunnel started.
By the way just look at the “choo choo train” here, Room for 100 people and at best there is 10 people on these ghetto movers.
One TU doesn’t give that comment justice bro. Especially since it caused me to blow some jack out of my nose. The naked truth.
Now I feel bad for the waste of perfectly good, J.D. Cheers, buddy. 😉
No different than when they did (tried) the SoCal to Las Vegas train route some years back. It was the best brothel on [the] track and was always, ‘on time.’
Our government isn’t concerned with it’s own EIR responsibilities. Just look at recent events of yellow rivers. They [the EPA] are beyond reproach.
I would never ride on this Tunnel Disaster Express!!!!
Oh damn, don’t getting me going. If any individual or corporation did what the EPA did the owners great great great grand children would be paying massive fines with blood. These people should be stood up against a wall.
ahem…
Trump could do it on time and under budget.
only half joking, because he probably could.