I get claustrophobic just thinking about it. It will be a miracle if they all get out.

exactly. Can't believe 4 months is the best they can do.

I heard the hole they have for access is the diameter of a grapefruit.

To drill another hole to get them out (the news article mentioned 2-foot diameter, but that seems fairly slim, doesn't it?) may take until December?! :eek:

Sounds like they have contracted with BP to get the job done. That's along damn time to be in a 500 sq ft box.

Let's say they are saved in 120 days. Are they on the clock the entire time they are down there with overtime for anything over 40ish hours a week?

Sounds to me like the only benefit they will take advantage of is "life insurance".

holy!!!

i work on a tunnel! first day back at work today, so i havent heard any conversation with my miners..

this sucks..i would freak the eff out..they would have to sedate me or just kill and eat me. i think coming out of the 2 foot escape hole would be torture. my tunnel is huge, and very un-claustraphobic..crawling out of a two foot hole like the vietcong would require heavy drugs for me,,and would cement any clautraphophobic tendencies into my mind.

i wish them the best.

I would think a bore and jack pipe threw the cave in area in the existing tunnel would be a lot quicker then drilling top down threw virgin rock as it looked to be shorter and softer quicker digging too

bore and jack is how you get a pipe under a busy road without a ditch
modern form is called directional drilling with precise guidance

No one has reported how much of the tunnel has caved in. It's possible they have more space than just the safe room.

The path down the old mine is a constant zig zag.

Nope

Trapped Chilean miners won't get paid while they're buried alive | Mail Online

They need a better union....

Sounds like this bankrupt the mining company.... They aren't participating in the rescue and have asked the gov't to basically cover everyones wages...

Try boring rock...then try doing it for several thousand feet in a blind hole(no where for what you're cutting to go but up before it goes out). I'm a machinist, and the deeper I have to drill in the metal with no relief for the chips to fly out, the longer it takes to drill. For deep aluminum drilling, I might automate it to move in increments of 1/4 inch, then pull the drill all the way out to clean the drill's flutes of stuck metal, then back in another 1/4 deeper then the previous drill.

For them to drill this hole, the rock has to cut, and also be pulled up from the bottom to the top. Rock is not an easy thing to cut either.

Why not use mud like the oil patch drillers do it?

modern directional drilling can change direction
they weave around existing utility ducks and pipes
even a strait shot mostly threw rubble but also threw existing tunnel walls
should be faster and easier then 1/2 mile of virgin rock
but it depends on how much of the existing tunnel is blocked

Nota, wouldnt the existing rubble collapse in on the new hole, or is a casing put in as they dril?

No kidding... They can punch 30,000ft around here in 30days easy.... Sounds like they don't have the right tools....

The 1st drill has punched through to the miners. 65 days so far. Things are looking good.

BBC

Ian

Good to see it. Last time I looked the American crew were in the lead, punching their shaft through the rock at a faster rate than everyone else.

Sure hope that everyone gets out ok and soon....