Inland Feeder Water Project

Continuing on my blogs on big civil engineering projects, We have the Inland Feeder Water Project a massive tunnel project being constructed in California. The purpose of this tunnel is to provide water supply for home use and irrigation in Southern California. The length is about 45 miles with 15 miles of bored tunnels. What I would like to focus on here is the 15 miles of bored tunnels and the engineering difficultly associated with it. The tunnels are at a dept of about 1200 ft below ground level with a diameter of 12 ft.

How long has this project taken? 7-8 years and over 1 billions dollars. They have a large bore with the diameter of 12 ft just like the one you see in the movies (remember Men In Black). As you might guess it is not a straight forward job. The engineers do have to worry about the strength of the ground above and water pockets which makes it an extremely dangerous job for the construction workers. To find out what is ahead of them, they bore small hole ahead and test the ground. If it is rock, well and good, they can continue boring. If not they are in trouble. If there are water pockets, they pump in grout to strengthen the area around the tunnel and ahead before they can bore further. Once they dig a few feet, they put in the pieces of the pipeline 8 of them forming the cylinder and seal them. And they repeat the process 1000s of times to complete the pipeline.

It does not end there. Digging at 1000 ft below the ground is not as simple as construction on the ground. You need to pump out the dug material, water and also supply air and construction material. They have pipelines and a rails to supply these. And they have to extend the supply system as they dig. They have to follow strict safely guidelines to prevent any mishaps. BTW the tunnel passes through a fault line. All the material needed for the tunnel is build and cast nearby and shipped via truck and finally using the rail system.

I am really amazed at the several aspects/people involved with the project. The one who envisioned this project, the engineering difficulty, the construction worker's skill and persistence.

Before I sign off, I would like to ask a simple question :-). Why are the tunnels being dug as a circle instead of a arch and straight line ( like a rotated D. 90 deg anti-clockwise ).

Ref: http://www.ita-aites.org/cms/322.html
Discovery/National Geographic Channel

Monopoly

They are people who refuse to buy certain products because the company involved is a monopoly. The situation is so complicated that the companies themselves diversify so much to make it hard for the consumer to start a hate campaign against a monopoly. The investment gurus recommend the investors to diversify and looks like some companies have been following it rigorously. Checkout the list of products that CocaCola Corporation owns. Investors can probably declare CocaCola as a mutual fund.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Coca-Cola_brands

Fine Print

We got a present from a friend today. It was a very nice present. A flameless candle. The candle changes colors. Can be left alone. Has a very good smell. It is very beautiful. I was so excited to use it. Guess what the catch is. It needs three batteries. I thought this was hilarious and had to post it.

Engineering Marvels-2. WindTurbines

Discovery channel had a program on WindTurbines. They showed us the construction process. The modern WindTurbines are simple in exterior design and amazing. These are really huge and they use modern materials and technology to design and build them. They have small motors to align them to get the best energy output. It looks like the modern wind turbines can give upto 5-6 MW of power per unit.

Wikipedia Link for Wind Turbines . Have a look at this link for details.


I think WindTurbines maybe ideal for individual companies/industries. If individual companies or groups of companies in a locality can invest in them, we might have something good going for Mother Earth.

Engineering Marvels -1

I was watching this program on discovery channel on the Arizona Cardinals stadium and Windmill in Netherlands.

The Cardinals Stadium has two great features. The roof at the top is movable. It takes 11 minutes to open/close the roof. The roof is build with a truss and some very thin translucent material. But this is not its best feature. The most unique feature about this stadium is not its roof but its movable football field. This is a multi-purpose stadium. The grow the grass for the football field and the 10 foot+- deep structure is prepared outside the stadium and moved in when needed using rails.

But as Steeler fan, I hate these indoor stadiums. I don't want to see Peyton Manning throw perfect passes in perfect conditions. What I wouldn't mind new technology to create a true imperfect(== natural) conditions to give us a balanced football game.

Windmills coming up next.

Sivaji The Boss

This was the most entertaining Rajini movie that I have seen. One reason being the other Rajini movies that I had seen were on TV. We saw this movie with the full Rajini ambience. Whistles, Arathi, Crowd, Queues and Annoying Queue Cutting Desis.

Rajini definitely looks very young with the makeup. Style Rajini definitely showed up. The songs were amazing. The sets were amazing. I am waiting to buy the DVD. Can't wait to see Shreya on HD in her costumes. Shankar made sure he put enough touches to make sure we were reminded of all the old Rajini's.

Waiting to see if Kamal can catch upto Rajini in his Dasavatharam. I suspect it is a "remake" or "rescripted" version of the movie History of the World.

India Trip

It is the 1st of April. We landed in Chennai. The weather was pleasant. Let see how this holds up for the next 3 weeks.

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