31–40 of 51 posts
> it will be the world's longest and deepest traffic tunnel yet the linked list of the worlds longest tunnels lists two longer metro tunnels in china
Makes some sense; a metro tunnel with stations every kilometer or so will not feel like a single tunnel, even if it was engineered as one.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does average construction worker pay in Bay Area compare to Germany/Switzerland?
while i'm sure the issue with the costs here and there isn't labor/salary, googled out of curiosity - for welder in US it is $30-50K/year avg, in Germany - the government mandated minimum in non-East Germany is something like 14euro/hour, in the East - 11 euro/hour. I also would be very surprised if the Germany/Switzerland were "outsourcing" the job to Chinese companies like the US does with big infrastructure projec…
Also, comparing salaries of those countries is just ridiculous, as Swiss salaries can be 2-3x higher on average than the German ones.
Originally, there was going to be a station partway through the tunnel. It would've been 800 meters underground - the deepest in the world. It was scrapped as uneconomical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porta_Alpina
Stopping trains there interferes with traffic too much.
I think self-driving vehicles will make projects like this even rarer. The two benefits this project achieves are: 1. Safer travel on rails instead of trucks (accidents & environmental) 2. Faster transport between regions (saving 1 - 1.5 hrs) Safety will become almost a non-concern with self driving cars. Work still needs to be done to minimize environmental impact, but electric cars are coming on strong. Faster tran…
I'm sure very few people tried to commute across this section of the Alps by car before this.
Gotthard Tunnel The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland expected to open on 2 June 2016. - Length: 35.4 mi - Cost: $10.3 billion - Construction: 1996 - 2016 (est) Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (known locally as the Bay Bridge) is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. - Length: 4.46 miles - Cost: $6.5 billion - Construction: 2002 - 2…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
while i'm sure the issue with the costs here and there isn't labor/salary, googled out of curiosity - for welder in US it is $30-50K/year avg, in Germany - the government mandated minimum in non-East Germany is something like 14euro/hour, in the East - 11 euro/hour. I also would be very surprised if the Germany/Switzerland were "outsourcing" the job to Chinese companies like the US does with big infrastructure projec…
The minimum wage that can be paid for a tunnel hand in San Francisco is around $34/hr plus overtime and benefits. See http://www.dir.ca.gov/oprl/pwd/Determinations/Northern/NC-02... You have to remember that tunnel jobs are almost always run by a municipality which means that they're almost always union. I would imagine it is similar in Switzerland. Tunneling is a niche industry and commands a high price.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_kV_AC_railway_electrificati...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_kV_AC_railway_electrificati...
It looks like the trains through this tunnel will be all-electric. I wonder why they went with a 15kV power system instead of a modern 25kV system? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_kV_AC_railway_electrificati... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_kV_AC_railway_electrificati...
Gotthard Tunnel The Gotthard Base Tunnel (GBT) is a railway tunnel through the Alps in Switzerland expected to open on 2 June 2016. - Length: 35.4 mi - Cost: $10.3 billion - Construction: 1996 - 2016 (est) Bay Bridge The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (known locally as the Bay Bridge) is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. - Length: 4.46 miles - Cost: $6.5 billion - Construction: 2002 - 2…
The GBT is 94 miles, right? I think the Swiss achieve these costs through economies of scale. There are tunnels throughout the country so they can achieve greater efficiencies at 5-10x of those in specific metro areas in the US. I remember when they were debating a tunnel under Tysons Corner in Virginia, the largest office park in the Washington-Baltimore area, the estimate came in at $800 miles for 4 miles and was c…
I think self-driving vehicles will make projects like this even rarer. The two benefits this project achieves are: 1. Safer travel on rails instead of trucks (accidents & environmental) 2. Faster transport between regions (saving 1 - 1.5 hrs) Safety will become almost a non-concern with self driving cars. Work still needs to be done to minimize environmental impact, but electric cars are coming on strong. Faster tran…