Re:Tunnels are our Transportation Future
by lonnydonovan on Tuesday August 03, 2021 @05:28PM
(#28054458)
Is it plausible to build a tunnel from China to the US through the ocean? Just a wild idea.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_tunnel: “The main barriers to constructing such a tunnel are cost first estimated $88–175 billion, now updated to $1 trillion-20 trillion, as well as limits of current materials science.“
China-USA would be a bit longer and go through the ring of fire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_Fire), making it a bigger challenge to build.
I would guess a bare tunnel itself is less of a challenge than its ventilation (even if you build a parallel tunnel tube for ventilation, pumping it out over thousands of kilometers will be challenging. The alternative would be to build ventilation towers every x km) and safety (how long will it take to get an ambulance to a traffic accident? To get people out?)
Re:Tunnels are our Transportation Future
by samstave on Thursday August 05, 2021 @04:37PM
(#28079396)
A semi-bouyant tunnel that sits ~100 meters below the surface with anchors to the floor and floats above might be ideal. Imagine if it was a conveyance even for just "packets" (cargo conatiners that are shot through the tunnel, no humans...)
Re:Tunnels are our Transportation Future
by noahtallen on Thursday August 05, 2021 @04:45PM
(#28079523)
The next downside is whether anyone would use such a tunnel, given that plane travel would be much quicker, probably safer, maybe cheaper (tolls on such a tunnel plus gas would be quite expensive), and possibly more enjoyable (better views in a plane, it’d probably be depressing and claustrophobic being down under for so long)
Re:Tunnels are our Transportation Future
by barbecue_sauce on Friday August 06, 2021 @07:57PM
(#28094231)
I imagine it would be used for shipping primarily.
Re:Tunnels are our Transportation Future
by AtlasBarfed on Friday August 06, 2021 @09:29PM
(#28094838)
Simpler to have rail to alaska and cross the Bering Strait by various means I would guess.