The tunnel boring machine “Groundhog Alpha” of the “Swissloop Tunneling” crew of students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, supported by Gebrüder Weiss, has achieved second place in the “Not-A-Boring-Competition” tunnel construction competition in Las Vegas.
The tunnel boring machine developed by the research team as part of the Hyperloop project also received the Innovation Award from the organizer, The Boring Company. As previously reported, the ETH team, along with another competing team from Germany, qualified for the final round from a group of twelve finalists.
As the official logistics partner of Swissloop Tunneling, the international transport and logistics provider Gebrüder Weiss ensured, through sponsored land and sea transport, that Groundhog Alpha arrived on time in Las Vegas from Dübendorf, Switzerland, allowing the students to successfully demonstrate the operational capability of their high-tech drilling robot. The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated staff shortages presented all involved with significant logistical challenges.
“We are proud that our tunnel boring pioneers from Zurich have achieved an excellent position among the top performers,” says Lothar Thoma, Managing Director Air & Sea at Gebrüder Weiss. “We will continue to work towards finding new ways to transport goods in the future, whether by air, sea, land, or underground,” Thoma adds.
Photos: Weiss Brothers
The "Not-A-Boring Competition" challenged participants to bore a tunnel for transporting people or goods as quickly and accurately as possible within the framework of the Hyperloop project. The Hyperloop project, based on an idea by Tesla founder Elon Musk, aims to transport people and goods over long distances, either above or below the Earth's surface, at high speed. For tunnel construction to be financially viable, the necessary drilling robots must be as fast, compact, and automated as possible.
The Swiss team Swissloop Tunneling comprises more than 40 students from various technical disciplines, who qualified for the competition from among 400 applicant teams. The challenge was to construct a 30-meter-long tunnel with a diameter of 0.5 meters, including a drivable tunnel surface and a precise guidance system, using a self-designed drilling rig.
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