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So you want to build a tunnel

practical.engineering

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Re: So you want to build a tunnel

#31

Post by pengaru »

poszlem wrote: post #2

When my wife was diagnosed with cancer and eventually went into remission, I didn’t really process what was happening at first. I was completely focused on getting her through it. The grief hit me later. What helped me more than anything was going out into the garden and digging. I made sure to do it safely, since I know it can be risky, so I dug wide and with wooden supports, but there was something about just diggi…

You found your chew toy.

Joking aside, I too have spent many days digging with a shovel and pickaxe on my desert property. There's something to it, even Jim Keller (of DEC, AMD, Tenstorrent...) has discussed digging trenches in some of his podcast interviews.

Re: So you want to build a tunnel

#32

Post by itsthecourier »

consumer451 wrote: post #29
isubkhankulov wrote: post #24

Great content for the upcoming drone wars and the inevitable tunnels that will be built for troop and matériel movements

What makes you think a tunnel would be safe? Just need to re-purpose this little guy: https://blog.sintef.com/digital-en/inachus-project-robot-sea...

a network of tunnels and sensors is easier to defend than a open space exposed position where drones can see you from miles away, I guess that makes tunnels better for defense

Re: So you want to build a tunnel

#34

Post by pcrh »

poszlem wrote: post #2

When my wife was diagnosed with cancer and eventually went into remission, I didn’t really process what was happening at first. I was completely focused on getting her through it. The grief hit me later. What helped me more than anything was going out into the garden and digging. I made sure to do it safely, since I know it can be risky, so I dug wide and with wooden supports, but there was something about just diggi…

Winston Churchill famously used to build brick walls to deal with the "black dog" of depression.

Re: So you want to build a tunnel

#35

Post by stvltvs »

itsthecourier wrote: post #32
consumer451 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think a tunnel would be safe? Just need to re-purpose this little guy: https://blog.sintef.com/digital-en/inachus-project-robot-sea...

a network of tunnels and sensors is easier to defend than a open space exposed position where drones can see you from miles away, I guess that makes tunnels better for defense

Makes me think the noble houses of Westeros should have dug tunnels to foil the Targaryen dragon advantage.

Re: So you want to build a tunnel

#36

Post by PlunderBunny »

kwk1 wrote: post #30
cucumber3732842 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As they say, the rules are written in blood Basically nobody ever died from leaky pipes or substandard weatherproofing. The code is as much about a) homogenizing the industry so big business can statistically reason about it at scale b) turning the subjective into the quantitive so that things can be done, checked, sight off on, etc, etc, without anyone using "judgement" as it is about protecting life and limb. Just…

> Basically nobody ever died from leaky pipes I know you're probably intending to only remark on leaky water pipes, but: The New London School explosion was caused by a leaky pipe. It killed 295 students and teachers, and led to the inclusion of smelly thiol in natural gas, as well as the Texas Engineering Practice Act. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion

Even leaky water pipes kill people - just google Legionnaires disease.

Re: So you want to build a tunnel

#37

Post by stvltvs »

tasty_freeze wrote: post #22
rtkwe wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How deep did they get? Hope she kept an eye on it, unsupported holes quickly get dangerous, people underestimate how much weight is in the soil if the sides give out and just how dangerous that amount of weight moving can be.

It was more sprawling than deep. It was a series of trenches connecting "rooms". I know they also had "water features" at some points, but the water would soak into the ground pretty quickly then be a mess for a few days, so they didn't do that. No collapses happened and everyone is still alive. :-)

Happy that all's well that ends well, but for any parents considering this, trench collapses have killed hundreds of workers in just the past decade. Anything deeper than a couple feet might be a hazard that needs to be mitigated.

Re: So you want to build a tunnel

#39

Post by malfist »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #26
Hasz wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As they say, the rules are written in blood. I don't think we should be disqualifying projects because they are not Mponeng-scale or complexity. I am not a civil engineer, but I did spend a bunch of time looking into building an underground range. Way more relaxed life safety reqs, smaller bore, etc. However, when you start reading, it is clear that much of the work is empirical, heavily localized and based on a grea…

>As they say, the rules are written in blood Basically nobody ever died from leaky pipes or substandard weatherproofing. The code is as much about a) homogenizing the industry so big business can statistically reason about it at scale b) turning the subjective into the quantitive so that things can be done, checked, sight off on, etc, etc, without anyone using "judgement" as it is about protecting life and limb. Just…

> Basically nobody ever died from leaky pipes or substandard weatherproofing

Famously, moist wet areas only grow molds that are safe for humans to live amongst, and absolutely never rotted away wooden structural components of a building.

Re: So you want to build a tunnel

#40

Post by MisterTea »

hparadiz wrote: post #9
MisterTea wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people like myself who prefer to read at our own pace, even skim the article and look at pictures. Video sucks.

Okay but that's not what this is. It's a YouTube channel. A very well known one in fact.

I could have swore there was an accompanying blog with pictures at some point.
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