
The Boring Company’s first tunnel is all dug up - zyberzero
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/11/the-boring-companys-first-tunnel-is-all-dug-up/
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dymk
What impresses me most about TBC is how fast they were able to dig a tunnel.

I'm in Seattle, and Bertha was digging for about five years. And it's been an
incredibly expensive effort, with lots of setbacks and budget overages.

Granted, it's digging a much larger tunnel, and the ground it's digging though
is probably different than a stretch of land in LA.

But TBC was whipped up what... a bit more than one year ago? And from scratch,
they've already completed a 2 mile tunnel, and I'd be surprised if it was at a
cost-per-mile _anywhere_ near what Bertha ran.

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7e
Bertha dug a much wider, deeper tunnel through a major downtown area next to
the ocean, underneath an active highway.

The Boring Company bought an off the shelf machine used for sewer lines and
dug through a desert at less than a fourth of the maximum depth Bertha did.

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sdinsn
> The Boring Company bought an off the shelf machine used for sewer lines

That's what perplexes me: what is the innovation behind Boring Company?
Nothing? It seems like their main claim to fame is navigating bureaucracy very
quickly, but what they are trying to accomplish could have been done years
ago.

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hobofan
As of now: Nothing.

However digging that tunnel was probably a good idea, as it gives them some
operational experience, and also allows them to start work on their
underground transportation concept already.

