sudden surprises edition
California’s ambitious Los-Angeles-to-San-Francisco high-speed rail project will likely miss its 2022 deadline and go over its $68 billion budget, a newspaper analysis [LATimes*] concluded.
The only surprising thing there s the LAT would say it aloud.
State officials underestimated the project’s challenges — particularly punching 36 miles of tunnels through the geologically complex mountains north of Los Angeles
There are mountains between The Valley and LA???!?!?!?! Whenthehell did that happen???!!!
Crews will have to cross the tectonic boundary that separates the North American and Pacific plates, boring through a jumble of fractured rock formations and a maze of earthquake faults, some of which are not mapped.
“Some of which”
The bullet train will require about 20 miles of tunnels under the San Gabriel Mountains between Burbank and Palmdale, involving either a single tunnel of 13.8 miles or a series of shorter tunnels.
…The state will probably opt for twin bores — one for each of two parallel tracks. That means as many as 72 miles of tunneling before 2022.
…the Caltech geologist, said the San Gabriels’ [Mountains] oldest rocks formed 1.7 billion years ago, … “everything in the arc has been bent, shoved, stretched, compressed and metamorphosed.” … The mountain range lies in a giant crescent between two major faults, the San Gabriel and the San Andreas, which separates the Mojave Desert on the North American tectonic plate from the Los Angeles Basin on the Pacific plate.
Between the two major faults are many secondary faults. Some are vertical strike-slip faults that move laterally, and some are thrust faults that move vertically. Some are horizontal, traveling through the ground at various depths … the “seismotectonic complexity … may be unprecedented”
the cost of building the first phase from Burbank to Merced had risen 31% to $40 billion. And it projected that the cost of the entire project would rise at least 5%.
wait… is that real maths?
”Nobody can sit here and tell you what something like this is going to cost over a 20-year period”” [Jeff] Morales [Rail Authority's chief executive] said. “Any big program like this is loaded with challenges. The day you hear me say I am comfortable is the day I am not telling you the truth or the day I have deluded myself.”
Some random, irresponsible speculation, here; where does the steel come from for the rails and the tunnel supports? If CA’s history in the Bay Bridge is any example, ChiCom steel is the preference. [You remember the ChinsSteel in the Bay Bridge that melts when in contact with water?]
Just free-form wondering, here, but what wold one find if one looked carefully at The Deciders, Our Betters™’s bank accounts. Think any ChiSteel $$$$$ would be found?
naaah. Pass me my ChiSteel tinfoil hat.
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26 Comments!
They should’a given the job to somebody who knows how to build railroads and to
those who know how to make steel and how to operate railroads.
I have deluded myself.
He is speaking for all who pushed this project, unless you don’t count the rent seekers.
Headline 2022: “Train trapped in earthquake tunnel cave in. Fortunately, there were only eight passengers aboard, but they and the train crew are feared lost. Governor Brown, now in his ninth term, said the line will not be open for the next decade as recovery and repair get underway.”
What, you thought they were actually going to build something with that $68 Billion?
36 miles of tunnels along a geological fault line. What could go wrong?
Where are the outraged enviro-wackos?
Atlas Shrugged warned us about this.
Plus, the tunnel will be besieged by refugees trying to get to Palmdale.
Dick 2: Headline 2022: “Train trapped in earthquake tunnel cave in.
No need to worry about the train getting trapped in 2022. It won’t be running yet, so it’s going to take longer than that for the earthquake to get it.
The actual headline 2022 will read: “Train tunnel drilling crew trapped by earthquake in the first half-mile of tunnel. Governor Brown says it will take another $300 Billion to clear out the debris and drill the next mile. Declares holiday on paying interest on CA bonds, and applies to Chelsea Clinton’s administration for More Federal Aid.
^ Headline:
Environmentalists claim that drilling tunnels, like fracking, causes earthquakes.
Uhmmmm……. The Brit Frog Channel Tunnel is 31.35 miles (sans fault lines & tectonic plate boundaries)…. So this is over twice as much?
Even assuming they ever finish, and assuming that it costs less than half a trillion dollars by the time they’re done (year 2122?) what are tickets going to cost to even pay maintenance on all this, much less on the original construction?
…
Aside: this is the LA plan to bulk move “refugees” out of LA and let San Fran host them instead, right? Maybe LA shakers & movers are smarter than I thought.
^^ Oh. I thought earthquakes (like comets) were caused by climate change.
So a zero carbon footprint isn’t going to stop earthquakes, then?
Of all the pictures you could have used, Claire, those two are the absolute best summary one could find. Well done!! :)
Who’s pockets have to be shook out?????
No problem as long as there is a quiet car.
Subterranean Los Angeles is full of explosive methane. Metrolink had to reroute some of their tunnels after running into some and having a nasty time of it.
I just threw up in my mouth a little.
It’s been said Mohamed can move mountains, so Gov. Brown should invite two million muslim refugees to California.
With two million muzzies praying five times a day in exchange for asylum, Brown would not need those troublesome tunnels.
The Dems would get a feelgood twofer. The muzzie/hispanic interface in LA should prove interesting as well.
(9), IiD,
Okay, in the comments about a train tunnel project in an earthquake zone, that’s hilarious.
Still any Quakers in CA?
The first phase of this giant boondoggle is 130 miles of rail from Merced to Bakersfield, or the train to nowhere (unless you live in Merced or Bakersfield). There are only certain sections of track that allow high speed rail, the vast majority will be running at a much slower speed (somewhere around 50 MPH)
^^ that’s hilarious… Still any Quakers in CA?
So you were quaking with laughter then? ;-)
Another Bob 13: Subterranean Los Angeles is full of explosive methane.
Okay, I’m probably taking some liberties with geography (and physics) here, but what I’m imagining is that the (not-so)fast train is cruising along at about 50mph while methane is building up in the tunnel behind it….
….suddenly: A Spark!..
Whoom!!!…
…. and the (not-so)fast train is instantly: The Bullet Train!!!
(hurling out of the barrel of the tunnel, in a 200mph trajectory toward The Transamerica Pyramid in San Franscisco.)
Ironic 19: I think that would be funny. The electric trains around here spark all of the time as the apparatus on the roof loses and remakes contact with the suspended wire.
When Metrolink was digging and reinforcing the tunnels where they ran into some of the methane, there was a problem regarding the welding torches and the continuous supply of methane. It could ruin a welder’s whole day.
A while back, I got a copy of All The President’s Men for just one purpose: so I could turn on my big TV and watch/hear Deep Throat say, “follow the money” whenever I liked.
The quote is actually apocryphal in the Watergate context, but it’s the first rule of understanding politics.
The first two places I’d look in the slow train fraud are:
- The real estate;
- The contracting arrangements.
But I’m not an authority in political development hustles, so I’m really just stating the obvious. There might be much more interesting things than this.
Aside: although some of it is quite a bit better now, there’s lots of things I don’t want made in China, and steel is generally one of them.
rickn8or 14: President Chelsea* … I just threw up
The trend is for increasingly stupid presidents to accommodate increasingly stupid voters.
Just projecting the trend.
You’re welcome.
* aka, “The First Brat.”
Regarding Chelsea, I am both amused and … something else … by Sweasel’s treatment of her. Here’s one, so you can see what I mean:
http://sweasel.com/archives/15551
^Another Bob HFS, that’s too close to reality!
LMAO!
It’s bullshit, of course. Even Jerry, in his lucid moments, recognizes that. A scam to keep money flowing to a bankrupt state.
Don’t you feel better?
Ya mean the shock-troops in the pay of the Union-Owned Thieves and Whores? They’re busy lobbying against increasing water storage in CA.
It’s ok — when the Mexican Nationals take over, CA is gonna be swell!
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ThanQ!, Chris in NC. It’s what I see in my head…
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mojo @25: A scam to keep money flowing
toout of a bankrupt state into select pockets.fify
; >