Groundbreaking: Elon Musk Reveals More On LA Underground Tunnel Plan

a reply to: smkymcnugget420

I sure have. It's not nearly as bad as NYC and NYC has a massive below ground transit system which I personally dislike even though it's mandatory if you want to get anywhere in a decent amount of time. Moving the main congested areas underground might make sense but moving all transportation underground would never work.

Not to mention where exactly is Elon going to port the exhaust fumes? There will be super high concentrated levels of exhaust fumes where ever the ventilation ports are located. That in itself is going to be a PR nightmare.

originally posted by: Discotech

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
I wonder how his tunnel will stand-up to the physical scrutiny of an earthquake (I acknowledge he has had engineers address this) and whether his infrastructure would make things better or worse, in the case of an earthquake hitting LA?

Earthquake effect on tunnels

Experience shows that underground structures, especially deep ones, are far less vulnerable to earthquakes than superficial ones. The latter are endangered by earthquakes due to the fact that the motion of the ground can be amplified by the response of the structure to such an extent that the induced strains damage the structure. The earthquake waves can also be amplified within soft superficial strata. In addition, loose water-saturated soil may loose its strength (so-called liquefaction), and this can lead to landslides or failure of foundations and retaining walls. In contrast, deep buried structures, especially flexible ones, are not expected to oscillate independently of the surrounding ground, i.e. amplification of the ground motion can be excluded

It seems that if there's an Earthquake it's better to be underground than overground

Even if the tunnels themselves stay intact, how sure are you that those car-sized elevators will still work? It would sure suck to be stuck down there for days or weeks, because you can't get back to the surface.

originally posted by: Sublimecraft
I wonder how his tunnel will stand-up to the physical scrutiny of an earthquake (I acknowledge he has had engineers address this) and whether his infrastructure would make things better or worse, in the case of an earthquake hitting LA?

Given that there are high-rise office blocks in LA, and that they have to be anchored to the bedrock through massive steel pins, that shouldn't be a problem. LA already has an underground metro rail system:

en.wikipedia.org...#/media/File:Los_Angeles_County_Metro_Rail_and_Metro_Liner_map.svg

Correct me if I'm wrong... but uh... THEY ain't gonna just let you tunnel through their territory. Am I right?

It's called the Devils Den for a reason.

I was under the impression that Los Angeles had a rich underground system of catacombs where the reptilians live.

Pretty sure that was the general unspoken consensus that nobody wants to talk about.

Underground travelways would force the use of electric cars as fumes from combustial engines would be too costly to exhaust. Which is probably the reason Elon Musk is promoting underground travelways.