The injuries and near misses described in the OSHA documents call into question the company’s claims about its innovative tunneling processes, which Musk has long said would make large-scale industrial projects cheaper and faster. Several former staffers say this is bunk—that what mainly distinguishes the Boring Company’s efforts is a willingness to put workers in danger. “It was a serious situation,” says one former employee. “I will never, ever drive in one of those tunnels.”
…
Then came the grand promises. Boring unveiled another machine, dubbed Prufrock, and said it could work six times as fast and tunnel a full mile per week. Five people who’ve seen the machine in action say that’s nowhere near how things worked out, particularly with the latest version, Prufrock 2, which dug the Encore tunnel. Although the machine could dig faster in theory, they say, it required more employees to manage it. Including pre-tunneling prep work, it took 18 months to finish the first section of the Loop, totaling 1.7 miles of tunnel, then another year to build the spur connecting the convention center with Resorts World, giving the company a rough speed of 1 mile of tunnel per year.
…
Employees interviewed by Nevada OSHA described conditions in the Encore tunnel ranging from unpleasant to unsafe. Workers were forced to spend entire 12-hour shifts in the tunnel, including lunch breaks, and ask for permission to use the bathroom. They had to beware of muck falling from a conveyor system overhead, which moved the sludge from the front of the dig site back toward the exit. When the muck reached the bins outside the tunnels, those receptacles were often dangerously full, as in the case of the collapse that almost killed the intern. Temperatures in the tunnels soared to well over 100F. Some called the site “the Plantation.”
And then there were the chemical puddles. The tunnels were dug at the level of the water table, not unusual in the tunneling industry, which meant that water was constantly seeping into the tunnel, mixing with the dirt and accelerants. Workers had installed pumps, but they couldn’t pull the water out quickly enough, particularly when summer rains exacerbated the situation. So they regularly had to wade through the polluted water. The accelerants came in with the grout via long hoses, which in the Encore tunnel often resulted in employees getting sprayed as they maneuvered the hoses from spot to spot. Over the course of a month, 10 to 15 workers suffered chemical burns that way, according to the state OSHA report.
From the article (archive):
…
…