If you live in a big city, living life without public transportation can be a nightmare! Many people do not own vehicles, and riding your bicycle to get everywhere can be extremely hard. Luckily, this is what public transportation was invented for! Probably the most effective way of transportation is the subway! A lot of people use the subway on a daily basis, but only some have wondered how the tunnels are actually made! Wonder no more, because we have two videos that will provide you with an answer! These footages show the tunnelling machines used for boring tunnels! The presented tunnelling machines are ENORMOUS, and can bore through gravel, boulders and clay with ease! The tunnelling devices are actually called Tunnel Boring Machines, or TBMs. The two videos feature tunnel boring machines being used in London and New York City. The tunnel boring machines in London are owned by Crossrail, a company that plans a new railway line in the capital of the United Kingdom.
Click on page 2 to watch the second video!
The first video showed us the tunnelling machines used by Crossrail. This company plans on using a total of eight tunnel boring machines for the construction of new tunnels under London! The project by Crossrail has a goal of constructing 26 miles (42 kilometers) of tunnels underneath the British capital! For this to be done, every TBM will operate 24 hours a day beneath London, and each TBM will be controlled by a group of around twenty people! This way, the new railway line will hopefully open by 2018! The second video shows us the breakthrough of a TBM in Queens, Long Island. This TBM was used for creating a new line that will convey trains to the west, into Long Island Rail Road`s brand new Grand Central Terminal. Watch the tunnelling machines here and learn something new!
Finally, follow this link to see how driving through the scariest tunnel in the world looks like!
