The Boring Company

[Emn1ty]

5 hours ago, FloatingFatMan said:

I really don't get the hype with this stupid thing. All Musk has done here is built a one car metro that cost effectively the same as a mass transit metro; this tunnel cost was NO CHEAPER than any other tunneling project, despite what the half truths and hype claim.  Hardly a breakthrough in either cost OR efficiency; quite the opposite in fact...

 

The man might be good at running rocket and car companies, but ffs, leave mass transit to people who actually know what they're doing.

I would say it got done in a reasonable amount of time. Any other project would have taken ten years and cost billions.

[FloatingFatMan]

1 hour ago, Emn1ty said:

I would say it got done in a reasonable amount of time. Any other project would have taken ten years and cost billions.

Not really.. All he did was a little tunnel, for about the same cost per meter as other tunnel projects. Other projects also build the infrastructure such as stations and passenger access etc which he didn't.

[Emn1ty]

1 hour ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Not really.. All he did was a little tunnel, for about the same cost per meter as other tunnel projects. Other projects also build the infrastructure such as stations and passenger access etc which he didn't.

I think you underestimate the difficulty of new development in California. This is the reason the Bullet Train is going so terribly, the reason we can't build new reservoirs or dams easily. You either get sued by landowners who don't want to sell you the land, sued by landowners who don't want to live next to your project, or sued by environmental protection groups who think you didn't do thorough enough evaluation on your project (even though by law in California that must be done before the project is approved anyways).

[FloatingFatMan]

1 minute ago, Emn1ty said:

I think you underestimate the difficulty of new development in California. This is the reason the Bullet Train is going so terribly, the reason we can't build new reservoirs or dams easily. You either get sued by landowners who don't want to sell you the land, sued by landowners who don't want to live next to your project, or sued by environmental protection groups who think you didn't do thorough enough evaluation on your project (even though by law in California that must be done before the project is approved anyways).

Those are just people problems and can be solved with the right will. Cali has much bigger problems making loops, hyperloops or even maglevs really rather stupid.. it's called a rather big crack in the Earths crust...

[DocM]

31 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Those are just people problems and can be solved with the right will. Cali has much bigger problems making loops, hyperloops or even maglevs really rather stupid.. it's called a rather big crack in the Earths crust...

 

Quakes seldom impact tunnels, which is a major reason to use them vs. surface alternatives. 

[wakjak]

Quote

It’s fight night in Las Vegas: Elon Musk’s Loop vs the Monorail:
 

he latest bout in Las Vegas is not taking place in a raucous casino boxing ring, but in the hushed rooms of planning committees. The reigning champion, the Las Vegas Monorail, is facing upstart challenger The Boring Company, in a fight to decide the future of Sin City’s urban transportation.

In May, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority approved a $48.7 million contract for The Boring Company (TBC) to design and build a short underground transit system at the city’s Convention Center, using Tesla electric vehicles running through narrow tunnels. 

The ambitious contract calls for the system, called the LVCC Loop, to be up and running in time for the city’s biggest trade show, CES, in January 2021. Over the next 18 months, TBC has to construct one pedestrian tunnel, two 0.8-mile vehicle tunnels and three underground stations, as well as modify and test seven-seater Tesla cars to carry up to 16 people. 

TBC has already submitted detailed construction plans to the city for review, which TechCrunch has obtained, and recently raised $120 million in funding. The company hopes to start construction later this summer. 

But TBC’s tight deadlines — and the payments it receives by meeting them — could be jeopardized by the Monorail’s concerns that the new tunnels could undermine its own system. To connect two parts of the Convention Center, the Loop will have to burrow directly beneath the Monorail’s elevated tracks.

Fear of Monorail damage

“The proposed underground people mover system intersects our existing system route, and it appears the presented tunnel alignment interferes with our existing columns for the Las Vegas Monorail system and creates significant concern regarding both vertical and lateral loads,” Monorail CEO Curtis Myles wrote in a letter to Clark County planning officials in June.

Chris Kaempfer, a lawyer representing the Monorail, clarified the company’s position at a meeting of the Winchester Town Advisory Board the same day.

“When you have columns that would be this close, you’re not just concerned about contact with the columns, you’re also concerned about vibration,” Kaempfer said. “The record has to be absolutely clear, if there’s any damage at all to the columns, it will shut the Monorail down.”

Kaempfer lobbied the advisory board to increase oversight of the TBC project, and require the company to work with the Monorail and city officials during construction to prevent damage to the train system’s columns.

“It’s extremely important to the Monorail that everyone acknowledge that this potential exists and that it needs to be appropriately addressed,” Kaempfer said.

TBC pushed back against any new restrictions, telling the board that it was already committed to protecting existing infrastructure along the Loop’s route.

“[Tunneling] noise and vibration are imperceptible at the surface. We design our process to be deep enough underground such that a person walking [at ground level] creates more vibration than our tunnel-boring machine underground,” said Jane Labanowski, TBC’s government relations executive.

At the final bell, the Winchester Town Board awarded this round to the Monorail, conditioning the Loop design’s approval on regular coordination between TBC, the Monorail and the city’s Public Works department. “That way we all have a point of reference to go back to, just in case somebody forgets or doesn’t check in with other people,” said the chairperson. “All of a sudden, someone gets to be a bad actor who doesn’t mean to be.”

TBC did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

While the Monorail and Elon Musk’s  Loop don’t yet compete directly, TBC’s ultimate ambition is to expand the LVCC Loop from a campus people mover to a Vegas-wide transit system serving the airport, the Strip and beyond. 

The Monorail itself started as a short, one-mile system shuttling tourists between the MGM Grand and Bally’s Hotel, using monorail cars bought from Disney World in Florida. It now extends nearly four miles and carries up to 67,000 passengers a day during its busiest times.

 

https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/01/its-fight-night-in-las-vegas-elon-musks-loop-vs-the-monorail/

Going as well as I imagined it would. As an utter failure again.

 

Over hype, under deliver.

 

And then : 

 

 

L. O. L.

[Emn1ty]

1 hour ago, wakjak said:

L. O. L.

The only L.O.L. in that tweet is that the guy complains about no measurements, but then assumes that the trashcan is 6' tall... without any measurements for reference. I'm truly sick and tired of people using Twitter as an argument rather than using their own words.

[DocM]

Quote

To connect two parts of the Convention Center, the Loop will have to burrow directly beneath the Monorail’s elevated tracks.

 

Given how deep Loop is placed it shouldn't have any more effect than a subway tunnel under a large building - none.

 

The Monorail folks are just tossing shade at the competition.

 

Quote

What holds up the stairs?

 

ENGINEERING!! 

 

Quote

Do stairs go through the elevator?

 

On 2D engineering drawings things may look like they're in the same plane when they aren't. Look at it from 90° and the stairs & elevator will be next to each other.

 

Why a trashcan? Ever been on a subway platform? People entering  from street level bring all kinds of crap with them. It's either going in the can or on the floor

 

 

Edited August 3, 2019 by DocM

[DocM]