Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

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Duncan Edwards
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Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

Postby Duncan Edwards » Sun Apr 10, 2022 3:37 am

Elon Musk just opened his new plant in Austin, Texas. During his speech at the opening celebration he lists what they had to overcome in completing a building that is three times the size of the Pentagon.

https://youtu.be/fiwUE_2JhvY?t=2757
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mike_gt6
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Re: Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

Postby mike_gt6 » Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:09 am

East of I-35 the land is very sandy/limestoney/clay. Del Valle where he actually has the plant is a lower area. Not far from COTA. Too bad anywhere that has potential in the 50 mile radius of Austin is likely swarming with people since it is so crowded anymore.

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BogDog
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Re: Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

Postby BogDog » Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:55 am

Here is the actual site, before and after. That IS a huge building.

They covered a lot of potential-looking sinking sites (playgrounds?) 8-) , but I see similar sites nearby. Yes, lot of people around though.

GIGATESLA1.png


GIGATESLA2.png
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Duncan Edwards
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Re: Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

Postby Duncan Edwards » Thu Apr 14, 2022 2:32 pm

BogDog wrote:Here is the actual site, before and after. That IS a huge building.


Excellent images there. It's three times the size of the Pentagon. Elon said anything measured in "units of Pentagon" was very big. :shock: It does serve as an example of why we have to keep moving farther and farther away to find natural areas.
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Black Clay Lord
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Re: Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

Postby Black Clay Lord » Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:12 pm

Me thinks Elon Musk has too much free time on his hands.
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mike_gt6
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Re: Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

Postby mike_gt6 » Sat Apr 16, 2022 4:08 am

BogDog wrote:Here is the actual site, before and after. That IS a huge building.

They covered a lot of potential-looking sinking sites (playgrounds?) 8-) , but I see similar sites nearby. Yes, lot of people around though.

GIGATESLA1.png

GIGATESLA2.png


Truth be told, it rarely has much water in that area, the Colorado River is usually very low due to all the damming of it upstream for Austin drinking water and then the rest is diverted to the rice farmers. I was in Austin for 13 years, and there were really no areas that were even worth looking into except along the Blanco River out near Reimers Ranch, which was a pretty busy park. The Catskills and Adirondacks were exponentially better for finding good areas to sink in.

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BogDog
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Re: Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

Postby BogDog » Sat Apr 16, 2022 8:43 am

Looking back over the years, the site HAS changed over time. The "pits" didn't appear until the freeway went in between 2006 and 2008.


gigateslatexas.jpg
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jenny_up_to_no_good
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Re: Elon Musk Challenged by Quicksand

Postby jenny_up_to_no_good » Tue Apr 19, 2022 3:10 pm

Black Clay Lord wrote:Me thinks Elon Musk has too much free time on his hands.

Elon Musk has too much of a LOT of things lmao


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