Reduce tunnel costs by 99% in one go!
Musk is coming to China to dig a hole! This is no ordinary tunnel, but an underground high-speed tunnel with a speed of 240 km per hour! Possibly, it will also bring a complete underground transportation system. And his low cost is the big killer of all Chinese construction companies!
Someone described Iron Man Musk's experience this way:
Musk wants a new payment method, so he has a whole PayPal;
Musk wanted to drive an electric car, so he founded Tesla;
Musk wanted the space station to be cheaper, so he built his own Space X launch rocket;
Musk wanted to get traffic faster, so he "developed" Hyperloop that could "launch" people out.
Musk from heaven to earth
I'm here to grab the jobs of the construction industry!
Recently, when everyone was swept by the news that Musk's space company SpaceX's manned "Dragon" spacecraft had successfully lifted off, Musk's boring hole-digging company quietly won two tunnel orders!
On June 3, Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom tweeted a map of the tunnel to be dug, extending west from the Las Vegas Convention Center to two casino hotels, Wynn and Encore, Wynn Resorts, according to foreign media reports. On June 9, Wynn Resort also officially announced that it will cooperate with Boring Company and has submitted a land use application for the project.
Bored Company just completed two underground tunnels at the Las Vegas Convention Center in May this year, although all of them were self-funded by Bored Company, but it can be seen that with this model, other commercial tunnel orders followed!
The establishment of boring company originated from a traffic jam, and on December 17, 2016, Musk, who was stuck motionless on the street, sent three tweets in a row, announcing that he would set up a company to solve the problem of traffic jams.
The melon-eating masses thought it was just a small complaint, but they didn't expect that two months later, the boring company was set up! Sure enough, It's Musk, the most executing man in the world!
(boring means both boring and digging holes, a pun on pun intended)
Just do it, the first thing boring companies do is dig a pit! In February 2017, Musk dug a "demo tunnel" in SpaceX's parking lot; in August 2017, Bored was allowed to dig a 2-mile-long test tunnel in Los Angeles; and on November 18, 2018, the first demonstration tunnel in Los Angeles was unveiled.
The tunnel is only 12 feet in diameter and can accommodate a small car, which only needs to install guide wheels to move forward at high speed.
With a speed of 150 mph (equivalent to 241 km/h), what is the concept? You know, the domestic subway speed is only 80 ~ 100km / h, sitting on it is probably similar to the feeling of us taking the train!
This tunnel can also be remotely changed color, allowing you to be in the middle of a rainbow tunnel.
Not only the speed of the bar, this demonstration tunnel also has many points that can be blown, especially in terms of cost control, it is clear that it usually takes 3 to 6 months /mile to build a tunnel in the United States, and the cost is 1 billion US dollars / mile.
The average cost per mile of u.S. subway projects in January 2018
The tunnel cost only $10 million (excluding the purchase cost of TBM), which is 99% lower than the original cost!!! So how did boring companies achieve significant cost reductions?
First, all underground, land acquisition and demolition costs have been saved
This need not be said more, those who are engaged in engineering know that if it is a high-speed on the ground, the early land acquisition and demolition fee is a considerable expenditure.
Second, reduce the diameter of the tunnel, the section is smaller
The current standard for a single-lane tunnel is about 28 feet. By using autonomous electric vehicles (AEVs), the diameter can be reduced to less than 14 feet. Reducing the diameter by half can reduce the cost of the tunnel by 3-4 times.
Third, large-scale equipment purchased second-hand and improved, machinery costs saved
In reality, TBM is very slow. Snails are 14 times faster than soft soil TBM. The bored company team will buy the second-hand TBM modification to increase its speed in a variety of ways, including:
Increase TBM power. The power output of the machine can be tripled (while with appropriate upgrades to the cooling system).
Continuous construction. When building a tunnel, it may only take 10 minutes to punch a hole and 50 minutes to build a shelf to support it. This is inefficient. Boring companies improve existing construction efficiency by modifying existing technology.
Increase TBM automation. While smaller diameter TBMs are automated, larger TBMs currently require multiple human operators. By automating larger TBMs, safety and efficiency can be improved.
The automatic operation of the gamepad, there is a feeling of operating the game console
Power on. Current tunneling operations typically include diesel locomotives. These have been replaced by electric locomotives.
Fourth, the soil slag is processed into bricks for the second time, and the disposal fee of the slag disposal is saved
Usually tunnels are dug, and a dump yard needs to be built to transport the muck out. The process is expensive, time-consuming, noisy and can be harmful to the environment.
Boredom Company developed the technology to recycle the earth into useful bricks for building buildings and paving bricks. And a brick company was set up to specialize in the production and sale of bricks. These bricks sell for only 1 cent/block, while the local brick price is much higher than this, with a market price of 4.9 cents/block.
Fifth, the project is completed by interns and part-time employees, and labor costs are saved
Most of the people bored companies hire interns who are willing to follow Musk even at a low salary.
Sixth, sell the surroundings, cash flow has
Over the next two years, "boring" companies were somewhat unprofessional. After the establishment of the company, the most attractive thing was its peripheral products - they first launched a $20 unit, limited to 50,000 pieces, printed with the company's LOGO of the duck tongue hat; and then sold a $500 unit, limited to 20,000 pieces of flamethrower. Both peripheral products were quickly snapped up.
Don't think that selling hats or muskets is just a child's play, the $1 million from selling hats and the $12 million from selling muskets become cash flow on the books of boring companies.
And Musk's demonstration tunnel has also brought him many orders, 4 are being implemented, it is worth mentioning that these projects are all self-financed by boring companies, and the project management rights will also belong to boring companies.
Among them, the first underground high-speed tunnel in Las Vegas has been opened in February this year, and it is not far from the opening time.
Musk also took the initiative to promote the project, saying that 1 billion Australian dollars can build a high-speed bus tunnel through the Blue Mountains.
Musk's ultimate goal of boring companies is not simply to build high-speed tunnels, but to create a new underground high-speed tunnel system. The car used will also be made by his Tesla, and Musk's business map has developed into an ecology.
In the tunnel, the system will transport passengers and vehicles through fully autonomous, zero-emission electric skateboards, carrying 8 to 16 passengers or a single-person vehicle at a time. The top speed of the electric skateboard is 130 mph (about 209KM/h).
Automatic lifting
Automatic driving
There is no doubt that this will be a revolution in the field of transportation around the world.
Underground high-speed tunnels versus ordinary roads
Musk said: "There is almost no investment in tunnel research and development in the United States, and the construction industry is one of the only industries in our economy that has not increased productivity in the past 50 years."
Now, Musk is really going to disrupt the construction industry!
In August 2019, Musk tweeted that he would launch The Boring Company's China project at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in China.
In short, Musk is coming to China to dig a hole! This is no ordinary tunnel, but an underground high-speed tunnel with a speed of 240 km per hour! Possibly, it will also bring a complete underground transportation system.
And his low cost is the big killer of all Chinese construction companies!
Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory is a living example, Musk came to China, got the cheapest land, got the most favorable loan in China, opened the fastest factory in China, he can now produce more than 1,000 MODEL3s per week, by the end of this year can reach 3,000-5,000 vehicles, what is the concept?
Everyone thinks that he is higher than Weilai Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile, it is impossible to compete, Musk initially said that he would sell 400,000 yuan in China, and finally decided to place an order through the Internet, only 290,000! So China's electric vehicle companies are all dumbfounded. His 290,000 can be said to have not only eliminated 50% of China's fuel vehicles, but also 90% of electric vehicles. Imagine a high-pressure panoramic sunroof, snow falling on the roof of your car, the whole scenery into your eyes, would you rather buy a Weilai, or buy a MODELX?
At the lowest cost, at the fastest speed to attack the city, this is Musk's style of doing things. Musk said that China is digging holes, and he is definitely not just talking.
Tongge hopes that China's construction enterprise giants must ignite a sense of crisis, and Infrastructure Construction Tong is willing to work with all benevolent people to explore the way out of China's construction industry innovation!
The world
Madmen and geniuses have always been only one line away!
Musk if you come to China to dig a hole
Will China go "crazy" with him?
What obstacles will he encounter?
Musk's "boring company" entered China
Where will Chinese construction companies go?
Can Musk succeed in coming to China to carry out the drilling?
Welcome to leave a message to discuss~