Wednesday, June 01, 2016
Gotthard vs Bertha
Switzerland completes world's longest rail tunnel. 35 miles long. Total cost $12 billion, took about 22 years.
Let's compare. Seattle is trying to build a suicide tunnel to replace its Alaskan Way viaduct. Supposedly this will be safer in an earthquake. Fantastically idiotic idea to begin with. Surface is the only safe place in a quake.
Total length, if it ever gets done, will be 1.75 miles. Project has been fucking around for three years, mostly repairing Big Bertha because Big Bertha was not designed to drill through rock. Actual tunnel so far, 2000 feet or 20% of completion. If work continues at this rate it will take 15 years to go 1.75 miles. Total cost by official estimate: $3 billion.
Cost per mile for Gotthard tunnel: $12 billion / 35 miles = 340 million / mile
Cost per mile for Seattle Big Bertha: $3 billion / 1.75 miles = 1.7 billion / mile.
Therefore: Big Bertha, assuming it EVER gets done, will cost FIVE TIMES as much as the Swiss tunnel.
Inflation doesn't affect these figures much, and Swiss labor cost is somewhat higher than ours. What's the main difference? Apparently the Swiss have come up with a radical weird Martian sci-fi idea that is beyond American comprehension.
Use tools that work.
I'll admit that I can't begin to parse this super-weird Martian lingo, but I'm just writing it out phonetically in hopes that maybe someone else will understand, many centuries in the future.
Labels: skill-estate
¶ 4:18 AM
