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I read it was six, running 24 hours a day, which moved 27,000 metric tons of sand.

Which, sounds like a lot of sand to me. Seems like software engineers would have the best understanding of slowly but steadily working towards a goal since that's been my life since I started in this field!

But, also, I admittedly bit the hype train too on how hard it was going to be to get this thing dislodged.



I think that number is from the dredgers rather than the excavators. Dredgers (ships) can shift sand faster than dozens of excavators.


It looks like you would be correct! Although the 27,000 metric tons appears to have been on point.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56547383


Thanks for providing a source!


A cubic meter of wet sand weighs about 2 metric tons. 24/7 excavation is easy to underestimate like sailing ship traversal under way: yes, a sailing ship only makes 4 knots (or whatever), but it dies so for 168 hours a week.




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