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"You going to put a penny on the track?" Giordino asked in jest

Pitt stood and stared into the distance "No way these tracks could handle high-speed two-hundred-and-forty-o containers The rails are not of superior quality and the metal ties are laid too far apart On top of all that, standard railroad gauge between rails is four feet eight and a half inches These e railroad"

"Laid as equip machine"

Pitt's eyebrows rose "Where did you come up with that?"

"I read about TBMs in a book somewhere"

"You move to the head of the class This tunnel was excavated by a boringone"

"Maybe they intend to replace the tracks later," Giordino speculated

"Why wait until the entire tunnel is dug? Tracklayingmachine to save time" Pitt slowly shook his head pensively "A tunnel this size wasn't built for train traffic It must serve another purpose"

They turned as a large double-decker bus painted lavender silently passed, its driver waving They turned away and acted as if they were discussing so inside, wearing different-colored julasses Pitt and Giordino also noted the Odyssey nao on the side of the bus The driver slowed, not sure if they wanted a ride, but Pitt waved him on

"Electric-powered," said Giordino

"Eliminates carbon monoxide exhaust pollution"

Giordino walked over to a pair of eolf carts that looked like miniature sports cars "Nice of them to provide us with transportation" He climbed behind the wheel "Which way?"

Pitt thought a moment "Let's follow the excavated muck on the conveyor belt This may well be our only chance to confirm if that's the source of the brown crud"

The cavernous tunnel seemed to trail off forever The road traffic looked to be restricted to transporting ed railroad carried only olf cart's panel held a speedometer, and Pitt clocked the speed of the conveyor belt It was traveling at the rapid clip of twelve miles an hour

Pitt turned his attention to the upper works of the tunnel After the boring machine had passed, the then the rock's natural tendency to reinforce itself Then a thick lining of shotcrete or gunite was sprayed on the tunnel pneu distances would have been accomplished by booster pumps spaced from the entrance source to the recently excavated area behind the boring machine This would have been followed by an injection of fluid grout under pressure to seal off leaks frohtness frorout would also ih the tunnel, a phenoan to believe was a distinct possibility