Chapter 204: Underground Transportation Network

And this is only for the current engineering team.

With Su Wu's industrial production capacity, if he truly wanted, he could expand the size of the engineering team several times, or even ten times, in a short period without much difficulty.

This was also the reason Su Wu initially thought that once he unlocked the Quick Cement technology, he would no longer worry about space.

Aside from the expansion of Farmhouse Shelter, with the 7 million tons of quick cement in reserve and the engineering team's ability to scale up indefinitely at any time, the underground transportation network, which Su Wu had once feared due to its resource consumption, could now truly be put on the agenda.

Once the underground transportation network is completed, Su Wu's Farmhouse Shelter and several other attached shelters would be fully connected, forming a true underground kingdom with a faster development speed and greater disaster resilience.

As for how to construct the underground transportation network, Su Wu already had an initial plan.

First, the underground passages that form the transportation network would be further subdivided into passenger tunnels and material transport tunnels.

The passenger tunnels need not be discussed too much. These would primarily transport people, so they would have relatively high construction standards. However, in the apocalypse, these standards aren't too demanding. They certainly won't reach the level of a subway system.

In Su Wu's plan, the passenger tunnel would be a one-meter wide, 1.7-meter high tunnel, restricted to one-way traffic.

Residents of the shelter could ride a mini train similar to a children's amusement park train to travel through the tunnel.

The transportation efficiency wouldn't be too high. A 20-meter long micro train would carry a maximum of twenty or so people at a time. But again, in the apocalypse, resources and safety are far more precious than time.

Transferring people through the passenger tunnel would at least be much safer than traveling on the surface.

If the efficiency is too low, they could make up for it by running the train 24/7 to increase the number of round trips.

Additionally, transportation between shelters wouldn't require mass movement of people. Most transfers would be for work-related reasons, not tourism or family visits. In this case, a mini train would be enough, and it could even double as a means to transport goods.

In contrast, the material transport tunnel would be much smaller in size. For general resources, a cargo container with a width and height not exceeding 0.5 meters could usually fit everything. The only difference would be whether items need to be transported in batches or disassembled and reassembled at their destination.

With such strict size limitations for the tunnels, the time and cost to excavate and construct them would be minimized. It would be possible to avoid lengthy construction periods.

"According to the strength of quick cement, the wall thickness of the tunnels can be kept at just 5 centimeters," Su Wu mused. "After all, the tunnels aren't that large, and the pressure they'll endure isn't comparable to a real underground railway tunnel."

"Also, since it's just a tunnel, it doesn't need to be as strict as the shelter's construction. Even if there's an accident, the damage wouldn't be too severe."

"Based on this, if we modify a stone crusher into a micro shield tunneling machine with the appropriate size, we should be able to dig about a meter every minute."

"Then, we can start construction from both ends simultaneously."

"In a day, we should be able to excavate about 3 kilometers of material transport tunnel."

"The passenger tunnel will be slower, but it can still reach almost a kilometer."

"Moreover, since the material transport tunnel doesn't need air, we can pump it into a vacuum. This will at least speed up transportation."

"We could even eventually upgrade to a maglev transport system."

Sitting in front of the console, Su Wu used artificial intelligence to calculate the costs and construction time for both the passenger and material transport tunnels. He realized that, due to the strict limitations on tunnel size, both the cost and construction progress were far lower than originally expected.

This made him even more bold.

He immediately marked five passenger tunnels and seven material transport tunnels for construction on the map, planning to connect the Farmhouse Shelter and all the attached shelters at once.

"The plan is ready."

"Now, it's time to start implementing it."

After marking the map, Su Wu turned his attention to the newly completed expansion area on the underground 8th floor from a week ago.

Originally, according to the initial plan, those areas were going to become experimental zones to simulate various terrains and extreme environments. However, now that the Quick Cement technology had been developed, part of that area would be repurposed to build the quick cement production line.

"Concrete crushers, high-temperature distillation balls, reaction tanks..." Su Wu added the necessary equipment for the production line to the manufacturing center's task list, immediately prioritizing them as the first items to be made.

Compared to producing quick cement, manufacturing capsule beds could be delayed for a while. After all, without proper housing, the severely infected could remain in their original shelters for now.

By producing quick cement sooner, Su Wu could speed up the shelter's expansion and increase the number of planting areas, alleviating the daily food demands of the now over 1 million-strong population.

Of course, this kind of prioritization could only be done occasionally. Keeping the severely infected in other shelters was acceptable for a short period. But if left too long, problems would inevitably arise. Those infected were seen as a waste of food and a source of contamination in the eyes of the higher-ups in other shelters.

Once they realized Su Wu could no longer accommodate them, there was a chance they might take extreme measures.

"Once the quick cement production line is complete, we'll push the engineering team to its limits, reaching a construction speed of 1,000 square meters per day."

"Then, starting from underground level 7, we'll fill all the newly available space with quick-growing food plantations."

"The plantations in Scenic Garden Shelter and Zhou Xihu Shelter will be gradually reduced."

"Next, we'll cut down about two-thirds of the poultry farms and free up space to build regular dormitories."

"Also, the two medium-sized shelters, Qingling and Li Rong, can follow this

model."

"All of them will be used for dormitory construction."

(End of Chapter)