Rat Creek Boring Action

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• I have no insight or experiance. W is the fall back guy for informal information. Can someone explain why they did not simply lay the culvert and just bury it at the time of filling the canyon with the fill. Having a hard time understanding this procedure and process.

• One question: how do I get one of those stickers?!

  • I’ll ask.

• Amazing! Same questions as BIRDMAN and WILL.

• Wonders and more!

• Now that is boring!!

• This is probably the "best" and "cheapest" solution since they chose a structural fill over a bridge. I guessed that they might do this. It will be interesting to see what the inlet and outlet look like. I'm curious about how they deal with the voids between the hole and the pipe, and what the engineering calcs came up with for cutting a tunnel that big out of the bottom of a tall, stand-alone, structural fill. Unless they are going down to competent rock--but even then, how competent is the rock. Also, steel in a marine environment (salt-spray, etc.)?

  I, too, am amazed at the technical prowess a skill of the engineers and machinery; but Nature bats last. For example, what happens when there is ground movement and weathering? I wonder how much weight speed of construction (if significant) and cost (if significantly cheaper) were given over a pre-fab or other bridge? And what were the savings in time and money (if significant)?

• Interesting images, those 10' diameter pipe sections make tractors and equipment look small, that's not boring...

• Birdman, the reason for boring after the fact is, I believe, because it is a compacted fill roadbed. To fully consolidate the fill, no big springy tubes could be laid in as they went. The steel flexes, fines get under the pipe and it tries to unbury itself like a car tire unburies itself. They may grout it as they create the inlet and outlet.

• Thank you W and Tomo for the response. Cheers

• TOMO & W: Do they bore all the way thru, then install the steel pipe on the way back out?
  I can't see how they'd get sections of pipe past previous ones if they install them going in.