Free Web NovelChapter 772: Chapter 507: Corps Captain, Why Are You Crying?
Fang Huai spread out the blueprints and felt a swell of pride when he saw all the leadership’s undivided attention.
It has to be the Firefighting Corps.
In any other Troops, unless he had managed to rub his hands and create a nuclear bomb, he couldn’t possibly get all these leaders to gather around and listen to him so intently.
"Leadership, I just had someone find a worker who worked at this mine last year. After comparing it with the terrain, I found that this old blueprint is still useful."
Fang Huai, seizing initiative, caused the leaders to lean in even closer.
"The main and secondary entrances on the map have indeed changed location, but that worker said there’s a drainage outlet used to discharge the mine’s groundwater, which is still in operation, right here!"
As Fang Huai spoke, he tapped a section of the blueprints twice.
In the coal mining process, groundwater is inevitable. If it’s not drained in a timely manner, it would lead to mine flooding, posing a serious threat to the miners’ safety.
The mine’s drainage system ensures the safety during production by evacuating groundwater through outlets and other facilities, as well as keeping the work face dry underground and preventing groundwater contamination.
Without this outlet, the mine wouldn’t pass environmental regulations.
Actually, the worker wasn’t sure if the outlet still existed, but rumour was that the boss was very stingy. Changing the locations of the main and secondary entrances was for easier excavation, but for the drainage system, if the old one could be used, the boss definitely wouldn’t want to spend the money to make a new one.
At that moment, an expert nearby spoke up.
"A drainage outlet? Aren’t they typically at a lower position? Buried deeper! We’ve also considered the outlet issue, but going in from this position might be even more difficult, you know!"
"Yes, deeper!" Fang Huai immediately responded:
"But look, this outlet is on the side of the mountain!
I had the worker show me just now, and after observing that position, it’s in the valley between the two mountains that was filled in due to a landslide. Because it filled in, the elevation has almost vanished. It’s safer than the adjacent mountain with the huge crack and hollowed-out center due to the explosion, and it’s less affected by secondary collapses. We can start searching for weak points up top to begin construction right away!
Moreover, that area may seem deeper to excavate, but there’s a large amount of soil and the terrain is relatively flat. So we can bring in drill rigs!
The excavators can’t get in now, but the main body of the drill rig can be separated from the power unit! A small crawler drill rig, both the main unit and the power unit weigh no more than two tonnes each, our Helicopter can transport them!
Plus, there are several kilometers of winding tunnels underground. Even if we get inside, without blueprints, it would be very difficult to locate the people, and hard to communicate with them during excavation!
But if the trapped miners inside can move and have no water, they would likely go near the outlet to get water! If we drill from here, the noise from our excavation process should make it easier for them to know we’re coming and provide them with hope for survival!"
People trapped in darkness for so long need hope, which he understood deeply after returning from Sichuan.
Those with a strong will to live buried in earthquakes tend to survive longer than those who are hopeless.
Fang Huai also started from the thought of "how to give people under the mine more hope to live," and step by step, came up with this plan.
The leader sitting at the center immediately looked towards the Mayor beside him.
The Mayor, understanding the gesture, looked at the several experts beside him.
"What do you think?"
A middle-aged expert with glasses cradled his hands and stroked his chin, saying:
"I think it’s feasible. Let’s organize a team to check the site, see how thin the weak points are, the soil-to-rock and solid-to-rock ratios, and how it compares to the surrounding area. We’ll know once we check it out. But when I came in, I took a look, and he’s right about one thing, the construction risk is far lower."
His words undoubtedly boosted everyone’s confidence.
The top leader slammed the table and made a decisive call.
"Don’t waste time, get a team to check it out now!"
...
The expert’s validation process was much simpler than Fang Huai had imagined.
Everyone compared the location of the drainage outlet on the map with the approximate estimation of the main and secondary entrances and finalized the target. Fang Huai and a few experts, together with two People’s Armed Police soldiers, carried a GPS and a level to the original valley section and landslide area of Jiwei Mountain to determine the altitude and elevation.
Upon calculation, the excavation depth on both sides was roughly the same, about 200 meters or so.
There was nothing more to say.
One side was relatively flat, the other steep; one side was comparatively stable, the other highly prone to collapse.
If Jiwei Mountain collapsed again, not only would it increase the layers of earth cover if the elevated terrain at the front were to fall, the risk of retreat and reconstruction from the collapse would also be much higher. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Of course, the mountain could be blasted to completely eliminate the risk.
The key was that blasting the mountain meant giving up on the external rescue efforts. To let the mountain collapse as it should and push the cover layer out by a hundred meters or so, the outer area of the cover layer would become the inner area.
The top leader, very decisive, waved his hand:
"We’ll do it this way! Start right away!"
...
Resources from the entire city were fully mobilized.
Another Straight 8 Helicopter arrived.
All drill rigs that meet the lifting conditions, geological radars, and remote sensing detectors were pulled to the entrance of the site.
The excavators outside increased to fifteen units, all above the 300-series, with the Secretary of the County Committee personally in charge of the excavator teams—who would dare slack off?
With drivers working in shifts, the clanking sounds of stones striking the big buckets of excavators, and the noise of drill bits hitting rock, could be heard clearly from a kilometer away, almost as if they were set on levelling the rocky beach.
