Groundhog Alpha, the seven-metre, 2.5-ton tunnel boring machine developed by Swissloop Tunneling, bored a tunnel in the Nevada desert – just slightly less long than the tunnel bored by the team from TU Munich. Their machine dug a tunnel more than 18 metres long, whereas neither of the two machines managed to dig a full-length tunnel during the competition.
In summer 2020, Elon Musk’s Boring Company announced a tunnelling competition. While the SpaceX Hyperloop competitions asked teams to build high-speed capsules to travel through vacuum tubes, this competition was about building small-scale tunnelling machines. The objective was to dig a 30-metre, stable tunnel with a diameter of 50
centimetres
.
Second-best of more than 400 teams
Out of more than 400 teams that applied, twelve finalists including Swissloop Tunneling were invited to take part in the Not-A-Boring Competition in Las Vegas. During the past week, these twelve teams underwent various checks by The Boring Company.
On Friday afternoon, the finalists were surprised by a sandstorm and a heavy thunderstorm with lightning bolts striking the competition site. The work was interrupted and the whole site was evacuated. On Saturday, after working through the night, Swissloop Tunneling was one of just two teams to be cleared to enter the final round on Sunday.
