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Mike Baier

@Mike__Baier • 6,967 subscribers

Removing traffic from the world one tunnel at a time. Director of Production, Electrical, and Software Engineering at The Boring Company

Shorts

This is Prufrock, riding The Monster, riding an SPMT, driving through Las Vegas. After we retrieve a machine, an SPMT drives directly under The Monster. That lets us move this 530,000 lb Prufrock section plus the ~140k lb Monster through city streets. The SPMT is a self-propelled modular transporter: dozens of independently steered axles that can crawl, crab, and rotate a load this size around an intersection. When we get to the next site, The Monster tilts ±10° and launches Prufrock straight into the ground.

This is Prufrock, riding The Monster, riding an SPMT, driving through Las Vegas. After we retrieve a machine, an SPMT drives directly under The Monster. That lets us move this 530,000 lb Prufrock section plus the ~140k lb Monster through city streets. The SPMT is a self-propelled modular transporter: dozens of independently steered axles that can crawl, crab, and rotate a load this size around an intersection. When we get to the next site, The Monster tilts ±10° and launches Prufrock straight into the ground.

105,334 просмотров

On hard-rock machines like Prufrock Main beam, the propulsion system doesn’t push off a tunnel liner — because there is no liner. The rock itself forms the walls. Instead, Prufrock Main beams grip the tunnel walls with ~4 million pounds of horizontal force. Think of bracing yourself hard against both sides of a narrow hallway and then pushing forward. That’s the principle. By gripping the rock directly, we delete entire subsystems: no liners, no erectors, no segment handling, no grout. The result is counter-intuitive: the maximum theoretical tunneling speed through hard rock is significantly higher than through soft soil. Simpler machine. Faster progress

On hard-rock machines like Prufrock Main beam, the propulsion system doesn’t push off a tunnel liner — because there is no liner. The rock itself forms the walls. Instead, Prufrock Main beams grip the tunnel walls with ~4 million pounds of horizontal force. Think of bracing yourself hard against both sides of a narrow hallway and then pushing forward. That’s the principle. By gripping the rock directly, we delete entire subsystems: no liners, no erectors, no segment handling, no grout. The result is counter-intuitive: the maximum theoretical tunneling speed through hard rock is significantly higher than through soft soil. Simpler machine. Faster progress

55,433 просмотров

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