The [tunnel’s] accelerants cure the grout that seals the tunnel’s concrete supports, helping the grout set properly and protecting the work against cracks and other deterioration. They also seriously burn exposed human skin. At the Encore dig site, such burns became almost routine, workers there told Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. An investigation by the state OSHA, which Bloomberg Businessweek has obtained via a freedom of information request, describes workers being scarred permanently on their arms and legs. According to the investigation, at least one employee took a direct hit to the face. In an interview with Businessweek, one of the tunnel workers recalls the feeling of exposure to the chemicals: “You’d be like, ‘Why am I on fire?’”
I thought this whole project was just one massive safety violation? Even just one person getting a heart attack in there and you’ve got a problem, because emergency services literally cannot get in there, when there’s other cars in the tunnel. A single fire and that tunnel is filled with smoke.
We didn’t start building tunnels in a decent size and with energency exits, because we were all dumbasses. It didn’t take the ‘genius’ of an Elon Musk to recognize that we could just hack a tiny hole into the wall. The guy is just able to build a death trap, because apparently laws are optional and human lives expendable, if you’ve just got the money.