Saturday, January 16, 2010

The Weenie - World's Worst Tunnel Projects


I am now going through all my books and searching as best I can on the internet. I'm looking for really horrible tunneling projects, ones that were successful, through the worst conditions.

I'm not looking for financial disasters, like going too cheap on a tunnel, but what you can do when things are really bad. It's my contention that Niagara could have easily been done with 2-3 billion at the start, instead of its final cost of 5 billion (they haven't told you that, have they?).

Now, we have Ottawa. If they acknowledge 'badness' at the start, they should be able to pull it off for 2-3 billion. Most of the rock is probably good, with some really bad spots.

The point is, that this has all been done before. Intelligent people have tunneled through bad rock. I'm have trouble finding case studies, because they are all behind the 'pay wall', but I'll try.

The winner is awarded 'The Weenie', which is an imaginary prize representing what I think a really bad tunnel, badly done, would do.....

1 comment:

Harbles said...

The Gotthard Base Tunnel. From Discovery Channel is interesting viewing.

Also The physics of earthquakes may also be of interest.