Another sleepy paper has picked up on this. We're talking quite the story, when the whole thing locks up, and they can't get it out because the rock has squeezed. That's because they haven't yet reached the "Mother of all rock squeeze", which is under the St. David's Gorge. The big guy says it's "demanding drilling conditions'. Yeah, this rock is as soft as cheese, to one of these machines!
The big trouble with these rock machines, is that there is no margin for error. You can design the machine to take 2" of squeeze, but 2.5" and the whole thing locks up! It's happened many times before in the world!
And speaking of techno-bureaucracy improvement, look at NASA! They've made a concerted effort to fight group think, by opening up the process, and bringing in external thinkers to trash their designs. Through this process, they found something like a dozen possible flaws and fixed them up! If only Canada would wake up!
2 comments:
This Site mentions " The reddish-purplish shale is fractured and has resulted in many roof-line rock falls slowing the boring operation. Although test boring samples were conducted in preparation for this project, none uncovered the vertical fracturing in the rock strata that the tunneling crews are currently experiencing."
Whod'a thunk it?
They need a concrete technician. I wonder why? lol
Neato. I can't believe that's the only thing. Fracturing in the shale only opens up when under stress. The stuff is riddled with formational joints that you can't see underground, but you see them when they outcrop. Sounds to me like compression spalling, due to high stresses. The stresses will only increase under the gorge.
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