They call themselves Tunnel Miners; if there is a big hole to be dug anywhere in the USA they will be running it. Their latest project is in San Diego, mining a huge new pipeline through the desert. This 18km (11 miles) long, 2.7m (8.8ft) wide and 183m (600ft) deep pipeline will provide an essential supply of water if an earthquake strikes. The work is so dangerous that it attracts only the toughest tunnellers from around the country. Their unspoken code is 'a man a mile' - a daunting formula which means that roughly one man dies for each mile of tunnel constructed.
To understand the tunnellers world, Ben will start out as a 'grunt' in the piss ditch, a swamp of water and urine left at the bottom of the tunnel. Then he'll work in the bowels of the massive tunnel boring machines which drill through the ground, and he will hope to graduate to blasting with dynamite. Becoming accepted will not be easy in this fiercely competitive world where 'new blood' is treated with contempt.
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