27 NOVEMBER 2024 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Not-a-Boring Competition 2024 Adapted from Information by the Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) Innovations in the construction of tunnels should help expand current and future underground infrastructure systems and make them more efficient to build. This applies to the expansion of current transportation systems with underground routes. However, increasingly scalable tunnel construction is also essential for unrealized concepts, such as Hyperloop, which could be used to transport people and goods at top speed over long distances through tubes in the future. This competition between student teams from all over the world, is intended to significantly promote the spirit of innovation in tunnel construction. Swissloop Tunneling entered the first Not-a-Boring Competition in 2021 with an initial model called Groundhog Alpha. In the new Groundhog Beta model, developed after the first participation, the overall system and subsystems of the first machine were significantly redesigned. This primarily concerns the erosion system, which enables the machine to perform a drilling process that can cope with the soil conditions in Texas. This was necessary, among other things, because the competition was moved from the desert soil in Las Vegas to Bastrop in Texas after 2021, where clay-like, very cohesive soil prevails. Implementing such new approaches is not only time-consuming, but also extremely challenging. The liner mechanism was also redeveloped; it simultaneously produces the wall inside the drilled tunnel as the machine moves forward. Using the liner from Groundhog Beta, a specially produced polymer granulate is now brought into the condition and shape via an extrusion process so the tunnel wall can be formed directly on the surface of the machine. At the Not-a-Boring Competition earlier this year, the team from Swissloop Tunneling competed with its microtunnel boring machine called Groundhog Beta against two U.S. teams, CU (University of Colorado Boulder) Hyperloop and The Diggeridoos, as well as The Warwick Boring Team from the UK and the Bored Tunnelers from Bangladesh. All participating teams succeeded in winning individual awards for the specific strengths of their team, for the degree of innovation, precision, navigation, or control of their machine. At the end of the competition, the team from Swissloop Tunneling came out on top thanks to a successful drilling process with a self-developed microtunnelling machine. The team of students from ETH Zurich, supported by Empa, won this year's Champion Award. After several years of intensive work, this is a major milestone for the team in the development of highly complex and innovative tunnel drilling technologies. "We are particularly proud to have achieved this result due to the challenges successfully overcome and the great commitment of all members," said Eugenio Valli, team leader of ETH Zurich. However, the success of the student project would not have been possible without the support of numerous partners from the industry. They support Swissloop Tunneling in various ways in the project, which the students have been pursuing for years in the workshop and on the test site provided by Empa in Dübendorf. Swissloop Tunneling will continue the project after the successful 2023/24 season with the ambitious goal of revolutionizing the tunnel construction industry with scalable tunnel boring machines. In doing so, the team aims to accelerate the development of infrastructure systems. HDD Louisiana Ground Water Association (LGWA) Make plans to attend the 2025 LGWA Convention & Trade Show January 7-8, 2025 Paragon Casino Resort Marksville, Louisiana Registration Form Online https://LGWA.org Discount Code LGJ06GR
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