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Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

propublica.org

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Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#311

Post by enaaem »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #243
enaaem wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed! I think the Vegas loop has immense potential. There are many ways we can iterate on this concept. Perhaps we can use bigger cars, in a bus like shape to transport more people at once. Or we could remove the batteries to save cost and weight and supply the cars with an external power source. There is immense potential here and I believe this will revolutionise transport.

[flagged]

How are batteries cheaper then... no batteries at all? Since the routes are fixed anyway you can attach a cable to the sealing of the tunnel and connect it to the Teslas. You can then drive the Teslas around like slot cars. Requires no charging, weight reduction, no battery degradation and no energy conversion loss.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#312

Post by pas »

idiotsecant wrote: post #236
guywithahat wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically the term chemical burn doesn't indicate severity, just that you got in contact with a corrosive material which had an effect on your skin. My guess would be someone got lime/cement powder on themselves and reported it as a chemical burn. They could have also been dissolved alive in an acid bath, but the size of the fine and the fact propublica doesn't say what happened suggests it was minor.

as was posted elsewhere, it was an industrial curing accelerant chemical used to make grout cure faster. It was not a cement burn. It's interesting, though, that your first impulse is to defend the robber barons that made this happen.

they are not defending Elon

their guess was pretty good

cement or curing agents are hardly the environmental apocalyptic scenario for the beautiful and pristine environment of downtown Vegas, hm?

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#313

Post by pas »

doawoo wrote: post #84
Seattle3503 wrote: post #35

The tricky thing about environmental regulations is that they are crafted and utilized by NIMBYs to block any infrastructure development. Even if, on balance, the infrastructure is a net positive. It's not clear if these violations actually represent a real environmental hazard or are more reflective of NIMBY degrowth sentiment.

This is a company owned by the same guy whose other company is dumping huge amounts of pollution into the air around Memphis, TN. And when asked they basically said “no we aren’t.” Something tells me it’s not NIMBYism.

why not both?

it's exactly NIMBYism which makes the installation of the very small inefficient gas turbines make economic sense.

because it would take too fucking long to get a transmission wire set up to the grid, not to mention about the fight required for starting a new power plant somewhere else.

(that said I think it's unethical to run those turbines there)

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#314

Post by 1718627440 »

themafia wrote: post #227
daemonologist wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a CityNerd video (which you may take or leave in general, but I found the anecdote interesting) in which there appeared to be one vehicle in service on the entire system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPjODKUxV5g I assume though that they would adjust the capacity depending on time of day and whether there's an event or something going on, to some degree.

> adjust the capacity It's a single lane tunnel and is thus one way. The parking are can only hold so many waiting vehicles and queued passengers. Their options for adjusting capacity are severely limited. Then you consider what might happen if the lead vehicle in a convoy becomes disabled, or worse, starts on fire. It's the same reason planes are safer per "passenger mile traveled" but aren't as safe per "total jour…

> It's a single lane tunnel and is thus one way.

Maybe they should have asked some railway engineers. Also why throw away the benefits of cars over railway when you inherit non of the benefits.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#315

Post by dzhiurgis »

enaaem wrote: post #311
dzhiurgis wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

How are batteries cheaper then... no batteries at all? Since the routes are fixed anyway you can attach a cable to the sealing of the tunnel and connect it to the Teslas. You can then drive the Teslas around like slot cars. Requires no charging, weight reduction, no battery degradation and no energy conversion loss.

Tramway lines are extremely expensive. Batteries are dirt cheap. Is that so hard to grasp?

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#316

Post by 1718627440 »

AgentK20 wrote: post #275
testing22321 wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are 100% correct. It’s small fry right now. You might be shocked to learn the first airplane couldn’t take passengers. Things improve, or at least attempt to. Even if it fails, I’d rather live in a world where new ideas are being tried and tested and not always talking about how good my horse and cart is.

I don’t think most people are arguing against the concept, or even implementation, of the system as developed. Obviously it’s both a publicity stunt and beta test as they learn how to build and operate a tunnel system like this. The concern is that much of the environmental harm that’s being done (according to the EPA) is repetitive , and that The Boring Company (TBC) actively pledged to hire an environmental inspect…

> as they learn how to build and operate a tunnel system like this.

Yes, why do they even do that. Not that they are never any improvements, but this pretty much a solved problem. They have a stupid amount of NIH syndrome, but apply that to the physical world and that always results in fatalities.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#317

Post by 1718627440 »

Ekaros wrote: post #67
miltonlost wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> modern subterranean transportation Looks at Hyperloop. Looks at London subway. Looks at NYC subway. Looks at literally any other subway Yeah, a poorly-made tunnel with cars that fit 2-3 people at a time while requiring each car to have their own driver is very modern and definitely worth environmental violations.

Poorly made two way tunnel... Not even two tunnels so you could send traffic to both direction at same time and have actual potential for reasonable capacity.

Not to defend them, but here in Germany you are not allowed to build a single two way tunnel. You always need to build two tunnels being single direction only. This is so that in case of a fire not both directions are unusable. This does not free you from the obligation to also build emergency tunnels.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#318

Post by simonsarris »

DrewADesign wrote: post #120
astroflection wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what chemicals were involved. Probably nothing that you wouldn't find in any other construction site with heavy machinery. Fuel? Grease?

> I wonder what chemicals were involved. Probably nothing that you wouldn't find in any other construction site with heavy machinery. Fuel? Grease? It was a chemical to speed up grout curing. I don’t know which one. I looked up a few and they were corrosive petrochemicals with like 20-letter-long names and an acute health exposure rating of 4 on the MSDS. They also didn’t provide PPE or instructions on what PPE was n…

Parent comment was correct to say "Probably nothing that you wouldn't find in any other construction site with heavy machinery." Actually they're extremely common anywhere any kind of finish construction is involved, including DIY.

Those kind of chemicals (including gasoline!) are in all the most common products like Watco Danish Oil floor finish that you can buy from home depot and use inside your home (and burn in your car for everyone to enjoy). They speed up curing. I don't recommend them! But they're very, very ordinary. If you want a product without them, you have to go out of your way to get it, unfortunately. (I recommend Tried and True Danish oil, which you'll find is significantly more expensive, and takes far longer to cure, but has no ill health effects)

https://www.rustoleum.com/MSDS/ENGLISH/65151H.pdf

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#319

Post by hashstring »

inemesitaffia wrote: post #310
hashstring wrote: post #309

> Leffel questioned whether a $250,000 penalty would be significant enough to change operations at The Boring Co., which was valued at $7 billion in 2023. Studies show that fines that don’t put a significant dent in a company’s profit don’t deter companies from future violations, Leffel said. A 250k penalty? Get real. Leffel said it like it is. What a sham.

Valuation isn't money.

Here’s another truism: losing a few pennies is unlikely to alter future behaviour.

This fine is a sham.

Re: Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

#320

Post by enaaem »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #315
enaaem wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are batteries cheaper then... no batteries at all? Since the routes are fixed anyway you can attach a cable to the sealing of the tunnel and connect it to the Teslas. You can then drive the Teslas around like slot cars. Requires no charging, weight reduction, no battery degradation and no energy conversion loss.

Tramway lines are extremely expensive. Batteries are dirt cheap. Is that so hard to grasp?

Why are you so anti-innovation? So anti-progress? There is no reason why the slot car concept cant work. Just plug the car to a long cable. I call it the hyperslot.
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