jabbadarth t1_j6ndrmd wrote on January 31, 2023 at 3:49 PM

>The plan brings the tunnel right under our houses. Most of the houses in Reservoir Hill were built in the 1900s, and we're very, very concerned about the impact of the drilling that's going to destroy these 100-some-year-old houses," Wright said.

They are just assuming that the boring machines will destroy their homes. This is based, I assume, on fear and nothing else. Tunnels are dug all around the world, all the time and while accidents do occasionally happen in America we have a pretty damn good track record (pun intended) of digging tunnels.

Look at NYC where they just a few years ago extended a line and added new stations under one of the most densely populated cities in the world. No news of entire houses caving in there.

Also saying this is the presidents plan is a bit disingenuous. This has been a project decades in the making. Biden just happened to be the president when it finally got started and funded. Certainly his infrastructure plan helped but lets not act like this was his plan when hundreds of people have worked on this for years.

pathofwrath t1_j6ofx3o wrote on January 31, 2023 at 7:43 PM

> They are just assuming that the boring machines will destroy their homes.

There is also a strange fear of below grade infrastructure. I've had tons of people tell me they prefer to ride the bus from Mondawmin to downtown because metro is underground. I'm from California, where the earth literally shakes regularly, and I haven't seen tunnel fear like this before.

FigLeavesandCocaCola t1_j6phzc0 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 11:45 PM

I mean, there are sinkholes in Baltimore every year. I think there is a reasonable concern that could be addressed?

FigLeavesandCocaCola t1_j6pilih wrote on January 31, 2023 at 11:49 PM

To be clear, I dont agree with the concern...I am a professional in the humanities who works with the population in the area. And I am wondering if the education and dissemination of information is being done in such a way that the engineering, and how the line would run with no freight is being distributed in a way that is effective.