WEBVTT - How Underwater Tunnels Work 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:04.519 Brought to you by the all New Toyota Corolla. Welcome 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:07.520 to you stuff you should know from House Stuff Works 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:16.360 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:21.040 There's Charles W. Bryant. Noel is with us again. That's right. Really, 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:23.680 it's just been a very short period of time since 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.080 he was last with us. Well, who knows, we might 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.520 release these weeks apart just to throw people, you know, 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.440 it's possible. How you doing fine? How are you? I'm 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.800 good man, I'm I'm great, I'm right. A tunnel through 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:41.400 this show and get all up out of him. That's 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:46.040 pretty lame. It was okay, Um, it worked though, because 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.240 what we're talking about has to do with tunnels. Yes, 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.520 I don't know if you caught that. Yeah, we covered 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:53.840 a little bit of this in the Subways podcast. Yeah, 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.040 cutt and cover, cut and cover, But this is this 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:01.840 goes deep undercutting covering. You gotta stop. I don't know. Yeah, 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:06.000 we're talking about underwater tunnel specifically. That's right, which, by 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:07.880 the way, we should probably say for those of you 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:16.160 who are into semantics, um, the word tunnel is applied 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:23.560 only to something that is bored entirely underground. Yes, if 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.720 if you say, like we talked about with cut and 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.480 cover in subways, if you dig out a trench, put 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.679 in your tunnel and then backfill over your tunnel, what 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:39.320 you've created is a conduit. Yeah. And if you if 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.959 you correct people when they talk about this kind of thing, 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:49.240 you're so obnoxious or you're an engineer or sea. But 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.760 engineers don't even do that because they still want to 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:56.840 be liked, you know, they don't want to be that guy. Um. Yeah, 0:01:56.960 --> 0:02:00.280 So we're talking about how and I think a lot 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.280 of people wonder how did you managed to get a 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:05.559 tunnel under the water. We're gonna tell you it's really 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.240 not that hard and there's a few ways. Yeah, I 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:11.079 don't know if saying it's not that hard is correct. Well, 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:17.640 not that um complicated in a engineering sense. Again, No, 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:20.359 I think none of these Like I was like, what 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.280 they bore a tunnel under a river? Right? But just 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.239 the this is the the overview. I mean, you can't 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:34.080 read this article ago building underwater railway tunnel? Is that 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:35.680 what you thought I was saying. No, No No, I'm just 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.600 saying like there's so much more to like just the details. Yeah, 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.040 I mean, but you weren't saying that there's particle physics 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.720 and there's digging a big hole under a river. You 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:46.760 know what I'm saying, Man, we're going to hear from 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.480 some angry civil engineer. No. I think it's great. I 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:54.960 think it's modern, modern marvel is what it is. It is. Yeah, 0:02:55.400 --> 0:03:00.280 so chuck, Yes, it's not necessarily modern, and it's no. 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:07.280 People have been digging under rivers um since the Babylonians. Yeah, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:09.840 I was quite surprised by this. They managed to build 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:14.560 a three thousand foot bricklined, art supported tunnel twelve by 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:19.240 fifteen feet under well, they diverted the Euphrates River and 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:25.080 it was a pedestrian passageway. That's crazy, right, This is BC. 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.239 And I think they diverted it temporarily. Well yeah, sure, 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.720 but even still it's still a tunnel. And they still 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.440 did this several thousand years ago, and they diverted a 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.600 river which is in President's own. I'm impressed with them. 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.640 I'm glad to hear you are too. Um. Over the years, 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:49.120 people kind of I imagine, built and failed spectacularly and 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:54.400 trying to build underwater. Um. It wasn't until the nineteenth 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:59.920 century that people really kind of started to advance by 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:05.800 leaps and bounds over say the Babylonian methods to come 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.440 up with some techniques that are still in use today. Yeah, 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:11.960 as far as underwater goes, I mean, they were tunneling 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.200 all during the eighteenth and nineteen centuries. And in fact, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.279 the word undermine I thought it was fairly interesting. It 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.360 came from the fact that there were miners who dug 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:26.360 undercastle walls to collapse them. That's a pretty good idea. Yeah, 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:27.840 it's a very good idea. And I don't think we 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.679 covered that in our Castle podcast either. No, I wish 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:34.400 we had. Yeah, that would have been complete. That that 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:37.719 episode is incomplete. But like you said, it was eighteen 0:04:37.760 --> 0:04:40.560 hundreds when we finally said, hey, let's try this underwater 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.880 thing again because we think we can do it now. Yeah, 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.560 and they kind of had it licked. And again, like 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:48.360 I said, some of the techniques that they came up 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.200 with at this time are still in use today. Yeah. 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.960 I got a question for you, though, If it's dangerous 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:59.920 and it's uh pricey, why do you tunnel at all? 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.760 Why not just build bridges? That's a fantastic question, and 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:06.120 I happen to have some answers. Okay, all right, I 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.760 still thinking about this. You build a bridge, it makes sense, 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:11.239 it's beautiful bridge works. We know how to build bridges, 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.120 We've been doing it forever. But what if you have 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:19.159 a heavily trafficked shipping lane with ships that are taller 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.440 than your bridge. You can build a drawbridge, but it's 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:22.760 gonna be up and down, up and now and up 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.480 and down all day. And don't fool yourself. A drawbridge 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.400 is pretty expensive too. That's one all right. Uh. If 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:34.479 you are um an enemy of the United States, your 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:39.200 bridge could be a target from air strikes. Yeah, that's 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:41.400 a problem for you if you I mean, if you 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.960 want to build it again afterwards, it could be struck 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:48.240 down again and then again. You want your bridges to 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:51.080 remain intact. Yes, I'm gonna argue for tunnels here though, 0:05:51.160 --> 0:05:54.040 my friend and say that they will stand tides very 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.520 well and currents and storms. It's not out in the 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.520 open like a bridge is. Uh. You can go greater 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:03.000 distances with the tunnel, and you can carry like almost 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:07.160 virtually unlimited amounts of weight. So score one for tunnel 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:09.120 and chuck yeah, because with the bridge you have to 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:11.880 worry about it collapsing with the tunnel. It's like, no, 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:15.640 you're probably pretty firm against some sort of bedrock or 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.800 seabed or something like that. You're you're you can put 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:21.520 as many trucks as you want on and it's not 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.760 gonna break. Yeah, I guess we'd call seismic activity a draw. 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:27.839 You have you ever seen? Why? Not good for either 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.240 one the bridges? Yeah, that is nuts. Is that in 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.000 Seattle or Washington? I don't know, man, but that's you 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.840 look at that and think, how does that move like 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:42.880 that without just completely breaking apart? It does pretty scary. So, um, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:44.840 we're going to call that a draw though, because earthquakes 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.560 are not good for either. Um. Well, cost you said 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.200 that the bridges are costly. Well, bridges are get costly 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:54.080 or the bigger they are, whereas tunnels get cheaper the 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:57.320 bigger they are. Yeah, the length. With the tunnel, it 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:00.400 it starts, the cost starts to drop as it gets 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.200 longer and longer. Not so with the bridge. So why 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:08.560 then would city planners still use tunneling as a last 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:13.160 uh sort of a last resort? I guess because they 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:17.520 like bridges more. Okay, all right, so that wash and 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:22.480 seen we were play acting. It's not very well either No, 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:27.360 I thought it was pretty good. Oh, I thought was okay. So, uh, 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.200 let's talk about some of the tunnels they've got going 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.600 on these days that are pretty remarkable. Um, there's one 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:36.800 that actually connects two islands in Japan. Um. It's called 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.200 the Well, you're the resident Japanese expert, have you pronounced that? 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.600 The Icon Tunnel, the Cicon Tunnel, And that is the 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.800 one of those two holds the record for the longest 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.600 and deepest underwater rail tunnel. Um. And they did that 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.160 in the nineteen fifties after a typhoon sank some ferry 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:58.680 boats and the cigar us straight and killed like over 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.080 fo people. They said, you know what, maybe we should 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.280 go underwater with this operation, and they did so. And 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:08.280 it connects Hanshoe and Hokkaido, and Hokkaido is known for 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.640 its uh sub factories. And you even have a tipit 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:16.000 for me the Simpsons tidbit. Oh was that from the 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:20.000 Mr Sparkle episode man one of the best ever. So 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:24.840 in they completed the Icon Sikan Tunnel. Yeah, I'm gonna 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:29.360 go with Sikan okay um and it stretches thirty three 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:33.440 and a half miles. Yeah, the whole tunnel does. Yeah, 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.319 that's impressive. It is, but then, um, only fourteen and 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.079 a half miles of it, only fourteen and a half 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:44.000 miles of it are under water. Yeah, but it goes 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.480 close to eight hundred feet deep, which is that's sort 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:49.320 of the remarkable part. That's a long way down. Yeah. 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.480 You have to pop your ears when you're on that train. Oh, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.200 I'm sure. The Chunnel, which we were laughing about before 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:59.120 we hit record. Just the name, and we should say 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.760 it's called the tunnel because it's actually the Channel Tunnel. 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.800 It goes under the English Channel to connect the UK 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.280 in France. Yes, and that was finished in the mid 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.280 nineties and uh, twenty four of its thirty one miles 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:18.559 or underwater, but it only goes about two six ft down. Yes. Yeah, 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.000 it's so funny to use words like only with stuff 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.160 like this or just yea yeah. Um. And then the 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:29.720 newest member to the underwater tunnel family is the Marmaray 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:33.640 Tunnel that in Istanbul that connects the Asian portion of 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.719 Istanbul and the European portion of Istanbul, which means it's 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.160 the only underwater tunnel or the first to connect two continents. 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.000 That's right, And The name comes from d c. Of 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:49.080 Marmara and the word ray which is Turkish for rail, 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.800 because it is another rail tunnel, meaning train. And uh, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.360 it's pretty cool when they were when they started digging it, 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.640 this thing, this project went slow as molasses, not just 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:04.520 because a construction, but because they came upon the port 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:12.520 of Theodosius. Theodosius I think, is that right? Sounds good 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.880 to me. So it was um it was a port 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:20.040 in Istanbul. Back then it was constantinople Um for that 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.800 was the busiest port in the world for about a 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:28.079 thousand years, and it was lost and they came upon 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:33.280 it while digging this tunnel, and the archaeologists were like, okay, stop, stop, stop, turn. Yeah, 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.640 they found forty artifacts from this. They didn't turn, they 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.719 went through it, but they documented everything and grabbed it 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.400 for the museum. Well, if it hadn't been for the tunnel, 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.760 maybe they would have never found that stuff, you know. Uh. 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:48.880 So that was an immersion tunnel and it was the 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.959 longest and deepest immersion tunnel ever built. Immersing tunnels are 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.640 my favorite. Yeah, that's the one that I didn't think 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.240 was super complicated. I saw a couple of videos and 0:10:59.400 --> 0:11:02.760 I'm telling you it is. There's a lot to it, 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.160 just the pontoons alone or yeah, but it's like the 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.920 kind of thing you can replicate in your bathtub, That's 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:13.400 what I mean. But uh so we're gonna get into 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:18.760 what that all means, because, um, there are quite a 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:23.040 few ways to build tunnels and three. Yeah, and there 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.880 wells three and use. I bet there's other dudes out 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.079 there trying to figure new stuff out. Um, but one 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.880 of the oldest that is still in use. It's called 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:38.160 a tunneling shield thanks to a remarkable, remarkable dude, a 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:42.960 Frenchman named Mark Isombard Brunel, who was eventually knighted for 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:48.200 his work as inventing the tunnel shield. Understandably, so yeah, 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.479 pretty amazing. He got the idea from watching a shipworm, 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.680 which is like a naked clam because these little shells 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.520 on one end. It's basically yah, it's like the termite 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.320 of the sea is what they call it. Because this 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:06.600 thing bores into docks and boats and basically tunnels into 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:11.280 wood and uh leaves saw dust in his wake. And 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.600 this guy saw this things like, hey, that's a pretty 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.640 good idea. I think we'll make a tunneling feel exactly. Yeah, 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:19.520 So he came up with the Brunell shield, which is 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:22.840 actually rectangular, but the best way to think of what 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.760 a modern tunneling shield looks like. Um, there's a description 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:28.880 given in this article that makes sense if you add 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:31.800 one extra sentence. You take a coffee can. Imagine a 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.400 coffee can't without its lid, and the bottom part of 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.880 the coffee can is pointed somewhat with some holes in it, 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.080 And when you dig it into the ground and then 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:47.280 turn it on its side to bore horizontally, what you 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.520 have is something like a tunneling shield. So at the 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:53.720 front end, what part did they miss? They're going straight 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:56.240 down and it just completely confused me, the fact that 0:12:56.280 --> 0:13:00.160 it wasn't going to the side. Oh, I couldn't right 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:02.480 at my head around until I finally was like, oh, 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:06.240 I see what they're saying, So that that coffee can't 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:10.360 imagine it jammed horizontally underground. Yeah, let's go in and 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:14.440 explore it. Right in the front, there's holes and you 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.559 have different kind of compartments where people stand there called 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:22.800 muckers and they dig out the dirt in front of them, right. Yeah, 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.319 And in Brunel's case. Um, they were cast iron shutters, 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:28.720 and they would just open these shutters one at a 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:31.840 time and just dig a few inches out. And back 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:37.480 then they used screwjacks, but now they use hydraulics and 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.439 just inch inch away forward a little by little, little 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.280 by little, and the reinforcing them building the sides as 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:45.520 you go right, And that coffee can in the meantime 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:50.120 is holding that tunnel shape right, because it's the exact 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.120 shape of the tunnel shield. While the guys in front 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.600 are digging, the coffee can is giving them all support. 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.000 And then right behind it are mac and steel workers 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.960 who are reinforcing the tunnel. And then the the reinforced, 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.839 finished concrete tunnel provides the stability for those hydraulic checks 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.920 that slowly and little by a little inch the whole 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.200 thing forward. Yeah, I mean, it's the It's like every tunnel, 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:17.840 although actually the emergent tones aren't. But when you're digging 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:21.840 a tunnel, it goes back to the Babylonians. You dig, 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:26.800 support advance, dig support advance, just like Charles Bronson in 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.680 The Great Escape? Oh yeah, was that his mantra? No, 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.040 this was just I'm gonna go tunnel in this tunnel 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.080 and build the frame. You're doing a good Bronson. Well 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:38.800 it's sort of Bronson, but it's also sort that the 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:43.040 guy from The Simpsons who was based on Bronson Pankas area. 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:47.600 Is that who does that? Sure? Okay, sure, yeah, I 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.800 don't know that for sure, but is it? Okay? Um, 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:56.120 it's Simpsons reference number two. Oh yeah, nice. Uh but 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.920 remember in The Great Escape too, they needed uh and 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:01.720 of course we'll see this too. It's very dangerous job 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.760 and they needed air. So they had them I think, 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:09.240 uh fire billows, bellows, uh something pumping bellows, just to 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.880 pump fresh air in there, because when you're hundred feet 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.080 in a tunnel underground, especially the size of one the 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.560 Great Escape, just like big enough for your body, you're 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:18.640 gonna run out of air. Yeah, and well that's something 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.320 that they ran into. We talked about. I don't remember 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:23.360 what episode it was, but we were talking about building 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:28.480 the Brooklyn Bridge. Um. They had these basically uh an 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:33.240 upright coffee can that they dug the the the posts 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.960 out of. Um. This is the same they ran in 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.800 the same thing when they were building the the the 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.800 tunnel underneath the Thames River. Thanks to Brunel, he built 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:47.640 it with his son. Yeah, very shortet, but it took 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.880 about eight or nine years. Um, and it was there 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.080 was a shutdown for seven years because it ran out 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.480 of money. But um, it was deep enough so that 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.960 you had to pump compressed air in to keep the 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.480 water out. And since there was compressed are you had 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.000 to go through a series of airlocks or else you 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:08.120 get the venture. And UM, I don't know if we've 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.400 said this, it seems obvious, but the reason you're doing 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.520 all of this is because digging into soft earth is 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.880 problematic because you're leading edge is going to continually want 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.920 to collapse on top of you unless you have pressurised 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.520 there to keep the water at bay, and you have 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:28.440 guys digging out through a support structure e g. A 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:33.000 tunneling shield, sand hogs. That's messive method one, yes, and 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:34.800 it's an old one and it's a good one. It's 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:37.640 still in use today. Um. It has to be softer. 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.240 You can't dig through bedrock because you know this thing 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:45.360 moves through hydraulic jacks and there's guys digging. Um. If 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.600 you run into like some serious rock, the best thing 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:53.440 to use is called a tunnel boring machine. Yeah, if 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.960 you've ever seen die Hard three? You get a good glimpse, 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:01.680 Jeremy ir Yeah, which is a pretty good one. Um 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.600 in fact, well actually yeah, one of only two good ones, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:08.400 Sam Jackson. Yeah, the first one and that one were 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:10.800 pretty good. The second one and I didn't. All the 0:17:10.840 --> 0:17:14.080 other ones are just terrible. The second one, it wasn't 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.520 so bad. It was all right. I like to see 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.600 it was at the airport, Yeah, it was okay. I 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:23.480 love any kind of airport disaster flick. Oh yeah, man, 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:30.400 I'm crazy for those movies. Airport, airport, airport two, whatever, airplane. 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.160 I love him. What about that bad Tom Hanks movie 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.159 where he played the foreign guy that lived in the airport? 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:37.680 I never saw that, But did you know Terminal? Yeah? 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.920 Did you know that it's based on a real guy. Yeah, 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.040 I didn't know that. I haven't seen the movie. That 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.879 wasn't very good. The I think the fact that it 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:51.520 was like kind of lighthearted and warm, that's not what 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.600 the guy was like. Yeah. Well Spielberg plus Tom Hanks 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:59.480 doing accents. Man, have you seen him doing Walt Disney? Yeah? 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.960 I thought that It's okay in the preview, now I 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.560 can't tell I did. I managed to get through only 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:09.240 about twenty minutes of Cloud Atlas the other night. I 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:13.919 just can't see Tom Hanks is like this Cockney rough ruffian. Well. 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.680 I love the guy. He's an amazing actor. But it's 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:18.720 just it didn't work. No, why did they do that? 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:24.000 To know? Hodgman's got some good stories about Tom Hanks, 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:25.680 by the way, I don't know if you should be 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:28.040 telling people that. No, I'm not gonna tell the stories. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:34.040 I don't even know if you yes, all right man, 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:39.560 that was a nice hank Sean sidebar. Tunnel boring machines 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:43.280 Die Hard two three. Yeah, so these things are like 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:47.560 a couple of stories tall. Yeah, they're amazing. They're they're 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.760 tunnel boring machines is the right word for him. They're 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:57.280 all inclusive machines. They cut, they support, and they build 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.840 as they go along. They're magnificent as far as as 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.040 mechanical engineering goes. Yeah, they have a spinning cutting head 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:11.800 and he's basically huge giant steel wheels that twist and 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.800 turn in different directions and then that whole thing turns 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:21.400 and it's just a destructo mobile that goes straight ahead 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:25.520 and uh lifts that pummels that rock and shoots it 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.880 out on a conveyor behind. Yeah, just like a five 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:32.200 valve a ship worm. And then uh, this is the 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.360 part I didn't get that they're actually building it with 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.080 an erector as it goes. Man, that's crazy. Yeah, it's 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.320 all this one big machine that's you just basically pressed 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:45.159 start and it goes forward. And they actually used tunnel 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:49.720 boring machines, a pair of them for the chunnel construction, 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:52.679 one from one side and one from the other side. 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:58.240 And thanks to GPS, Yeah, good GPS um, they were 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:00.520 able to keep them on a course for one another. 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.760 First I thought missing, Yeah, the first thing I thought 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:06.920 was I would end up like ten ft above. Oh man, 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.240 I wouldn't even end up that close. Yeah, and you'd 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.040 be screwed. You'd have to start all over. I would 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:16.959 end up in Scotland. Well, it'd be great. We'd be 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:22.439 like just tunnel up and get drunk distilleries. Uh. But 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.520 luckily they had a lot smarter people than us working 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:29.359 on the channel. Right. Um. They drive forward, Uh at 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.280 a rate of about two and fifty per day. That's 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:36.640 significant because we're talking like bedrock, you know, like if 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.240 you if you were able to take away all of 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:43.000 the Dirk and all of the water on Earth. What 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.480 you would have is rock. That's the mantel, and that's 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.680 what you're digging through. Is this rock it's made to 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:53.800 support the earth exactly. Heck, it is the earth. Yeah, 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:56.639 and um, this is what these machines dig through at 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.880 a rate two fifty ft a day. That's impressive. Yeah, 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.399 in they work, Apparently they're uh something this violent is 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.560 prone to breaking down. So I guess when you have 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:09.639 them up and running, that's a good thing. When they're down, then, um, 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:11.800 you're obviously gonna be losing time. Did you see how 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.040 the author of this article put it? I did. I 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:19.080 didn't even want to comment. You want to go ahead? Well, 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.639 he just says that they breakdown more often than he 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:27.080 used jaguar, except he probably said jag earra jar. I 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.240 didn't know that, or jaguars. Are they famous for not working? Yeah? 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:34.560 Oh yeah, I really didn't know that. The older ones 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:38.240 are well, that's like any old car, right, I think 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:41.919 they they? And like if you w rabbits had like 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:48.000 real bad track records. Remember the rabbit mhm or the cabriolet? Yeah, 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:55.040 every story girl's favorite car, right? What else? Remember Looker? Yeah? 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:57.720 It even said look car on the side. Yeah, it's 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:03.560 French for the car, is it? Alright? So UM, did 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:06.080 you know Josh that they are have been banning about 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:10.679 the idea of a transit plant tunnel for decades. It's 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.720 pretty awesome. I don't think it will ever happen though. No. 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:16.600 They would be very costly because it would be the 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.119 um It would be an immersion tube. But they wouldn't 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:21.800 be able to go to the sea floor obviously, because 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:25.679 that's just crazy. It would be tethered, floating essentially at 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.760 about a hundred and fifty ft below the water, right 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:34.320 dangling from a pontoon on the surface, and uh fifty 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:38.080 four thousand football field side size sections. And that's how 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:39.320 we're going to get into that in a minute. But 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:41.800 that's how they work with these immersion tunnels. They do 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:44.720 it one section at a time. It's just too much 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:48.639 money and too much stuff. There's well, there's actually an 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:53.560 immersion tube tunnel UM that's proposed in Norway across the 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:58.160 Sogna Fiord. That sounds much more manageable than the Atlantic Ocean. Really, 0:22:58.280 --> 0:23:00.760 I mean, just the idea of this this ontoon getting 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:06.760 pummeled by UM by cyclones and and just bad weather 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:09.280 in general. Plus why do it these people who just 0:23:09.320 --> 0:23:12.320 want to drive to England from New York. I don't know. 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:17.480 I don't know that the logic behind any advantage behind 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:19.560 something like that. It just seems like it would just 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.199 every every foot of it is a potential for it 0:23:23.280 --> 0:23:27.199 to just break and the whole thing's trashed. But the 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:29.199 one in Norway is that an I T T an 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.040 emerged tube tunnel. It is dangling from a pontoona bu 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:37.680 that one's dangling, right, So that technology exists. Uh well, 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:40.520 it's it's in proposal stage. And like the thing I saw, 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:42.879 it was still probably kind of an overview, but they 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:45.320 seemed pretty confident about it. They had like you know, 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:48.120 titled charts and all that kind of stuff. But it's 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:52.320 it's it's only something that's um like twenty kilometers or 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:54.440 thirty kilometer or something like that. It's not all the 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:58.399 way across the Atlantic Ocean, you know. All right, So 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:00.520 I guess we should fully explain in the I T 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:03.159 T then, which is our final way that you can 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:06.520 tunnel underground and again my favorite, But before we get 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:15.600 to it, let's do a message break and chuck now 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:18.720