Niagara Tunnel has a bo-bo

I am not following this at all!  Seems that Ontario-ians love Soviet central industrial planning, and shrug at billions being wasted.


July 2nd 2011 - 


A  "Fall of Ground" occurred within the Niagara Tunnel on Saturday July 2nd 2011 between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Forty to fifty cubic metres of rock fell from the roof of the Niagara Tunnel.  Project manager Ernst Gschnitzer said it happened in a "problematic area" about six kilometres into the 10.2-kilometre tunnel. Nobody was injured.


"The area is secured and we are in the process of restoring, or gearing up for restoring, the area," said Gschnitzer, of Strabag AG, the Austrian company hired by Ontario Power Generation to build the tunnel. "It happened already a while ago in another zone of the tunnel. It is an area that we have already monitored." 
- Niagara Falls Review


The TBM mined the area of the tunnel at 6,000 Meters at an elevation of 91.729 meters in February of 2010.


This is the second such occurrence that has occurred. 


The first "Fall of Ground" fell from the crown of the tunnel on September 11th 2009.  The partial collapse came just as the TBM was moving into more competent ground and achieving higher progress rates. About 25m3 (100 tonnes) of temporary lining and Queenston Shale fell from the crown. According to the owner, Ontario Power Generation, no one was injured in the collapse and all of the workers left the tunnel safely, following established emergency procedures. The fall occurred about 2 km (1.2 miles) behind the TBM, and some 3,600 meters (2.2 miles) into the 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) long ,14.4 meter (47ft) diameter tunnel, in an area that experienced some of the most severe over-break to date. 

All I want is to be able to cruise down that tunnel and look for liner cracks!  Perhaps a new gov't will let me, but I doubt it.  I'm letting my Peng expire, since there seems to be no hope for anything rational in the next few years.  :(