Under Seattle, a Big Object Blocks Bertha. What Is It?

[WarToad]

Riddle me this Batman....


Most granite is made of quartz and feldspar. Granite is the common metamorphic rock that these machines tunnel through

Granite is made of three basic materials... mica, quartz and feldspar

Feldspar has a hardness of 6

Quartz has a hardness of 7

Each number is twice as hard as the number before

...yet these machines chew that up like its cornflakes

Iron has a hardness of 5.2  Steel a little higher at 5.5 -5.7


SO..

WHY would an iron pipe only 8 inches in diameter stop one of these?



I mean the sheer weight of the machine would snap it like a toothpick

Come on  People   

Think

C/mon, Z.  Think.  The mineral content in the rock and ore is widely dispursed and not refined, not  forged.  The pipe is chemically engineered and built for strength.  You're mashing apples and oranges of extreme natures.  And if you read -

A modern tunnel machine can chew through dirt and concrete, but not steel. Even fiberglass rods caused a snag that delayed work several days this summer. Steel could become tangled in the spokes of the rotary cutting head, and in a conveyor screw that pushes dirt from the cutter face onto a belt that moves out the rear of the machine.

Which makes complete sense.  I did done thunk. 

[micjer]

Kinda reminds me of my chainsaw when I was cutting wood and hit a nail.  Not good either. 

[Sgt.Rocknroll]

Casing is design to withstand external & internal pressure. Casing pipe of any decent length can be bent and made to collapse  by that pressure not cutting blades. Not an expert on giant drills but I believe they spin at sufient speed to easily slice through an 8" pipe.

[zorgon]

Kinda reminds me of my chainsaw when I was cutting wood and hit a nail.  Not good either.

Hardly the same scale and your chainsaw has steel teeth hitting steel nails


OP says "Big Object Blocks Bertha"  An 8" pipe is a mere toothpick for something the size of Bertha, Cutter teeth are tungsten carbide.... almost as hard as diamond.  My carbide tipped table saw cuts through steel bars like butter. I use it all the time cutting pipe

So sorry  not buying it

Tungsten Carbide blades...




Cut through steel like butter....

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

Hmm, the blue teeth on the cutting heads are made from super high carbon steel, something like 4% i think.
This is much harder than normal steel, and as has been said, the pressure is enourmous.
TBM's push themselves forward on massive hydraulic rams, so i don't see a pipe of any size being that much of a problem.
In fact soft pipes from copper or lead could give bigger problems, getting smeared over the cutting head & render it useless.

Like if you try to cut perspex too fast with a hacksaw

But if it's a steel girder, then it's much harder, almost as hard as the cutting head. The bits of rock & mud are usually mixed with water & pumped out, it's more efficient than a conveyor

But then again, steel doesn't mix very well, & the pumps won't like it either ...it has to be something bigger & thicker than a steel pipe, i reckon

[micjer]

Ok you have convinced me.  Took a look at pic of machine with men standing beneath.  Visualizing an 8 inch pipe....agree .... toothpick.


Sooooo what stalled it?

[PLAYSWITHMACHINES]

I made parts for TBM's in the past, so i know the humungous amount of pressure behind them, they could cut through almost anything.

Sooooo what stalled it?

Something big, like Norval's car, or maybe they hit a crystal skull  ?

[deuem]

Probably hit a wall of a gummy matter and it just packed up the blades and wont eject well So the entire head is covered in a goop of sticky matter and it cant push though it anymore. Just sits there spinning in the goop. Something like Tar would gum it up, Nothing to cut! Ever tryed to cut peanut butter or wet cement? So i am now going in the opposide dirrection, not hard but very soft and sticky. A big gooy mess. They hit the bloob...

If I drill a hole with my diamond tipped drill it will zip though anything it hits as long as it is hard, Hit wet cement and it will stop dead and twist the drill ot of my hands. All the flutes fill with the wet cement and there is no exit way left. Then it hardens due to friction and stalls the drill. Even some very dry items like cement dust or brick dust will do this if water is hit at the same time. The drill mixes them and it creates a slurry very fast that fills flutes and stops it.

Deuem

[Norval]

Surprisingly the local news is being very quiet about this month long halt to the tunnel project for some reason?!?! That a "pipe", or even as it was said above, "fiberglass rods", could stop this big Bertha motha, , , , or even "mucky muck"  , I am doubting it.

, , , , and it twasn't me car either, , , maybe they hit an entrance to a D.U.M.B.   

This link should provide some entertainment for us, , , , provided they can get it to go again.  Link on that page to a live cam also.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/About/FollowBertha

[ShotInTheDark]

I dont think stalling techniques will work this time its been over a month. There is a reason for this and its not a steel pipe which is absurd this thing eats granite like butter. They may had hit an old buried nuclear military Silo.

Remember a guy named Ray Wartel (Spelling)British who lives in Vegas? He used to travel up and down the highways outside of Vegas and towards Area 51. He stated one time that he would see Silos just come up out of the ground that were massive in the desert and they would always last 9 minutes.

These silos I thought could had been military silos holding nuclear weapons. Or possibly the ETs landed in these Silos which come up out of the ground.

But in Seattle being its on the coast which is where you would launch you nukes that this could perhaps be a buried silo that is made to withstand a nuclear blast I'm only throwing some theories out here. Or yes it could be an Alien Base or a D.U.M.B.

[ShotInTheDark]

At 7:45 you will hear ray talk about Silos that come up out of the ground for 9 minutes then go back down what was Ray talking about.? Also this man shot possibly the most famous UFO video ever seen from Vegas in broad daylight.

Remember this is 1993

[micjer]

Here is a pic of part of the pipe that got pushed out by Bertha.   Doesn't look like something that would stop it .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/11827998735/in/photostream/

[micjer]

I don't think the work crew really believe that the pipe is what has stalled the project.  This is from their own website...

Reminder about the steel pipe
Much attention has been focused on the steel pipe fragment that was seen protruding through an opening in the machine's cutterhead on Jan. 2. While we believe the pipe may be a contributing factor to the tunneling slowdown, it's important to remember that the overall cause won't be known until our investigation is completed.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/Viaduct/

[Littleenki]

The section of pipe, although smallish compared to Bertha, could stop an operation...it doesnt clear free of the cutter head like stone or other geological materials, and to let it stay in the head and drive the drill down on it could cost a poopload of money to fix in labor terms, and also parts terms.
Best to stop, yank it out, and blame the whole slowing on an unseen circumstance to divert attention away from the mapping crew, who shouldve seen it on the GPR.

Standard op procedure for contractors...play the disinfo and blame game to save face and keep their jobs intact.

[Norval]

, , , , , and they are still stalled and very little word on WHY as yet.