When I was visiting Bergen in 2017 for WTC, a Norwegian professor told me the same thing about the disc usage. Anyways they made it! Let's look at the final result. Quite an accomplishment.
This was the original news about the court case won by WSDOT.
https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/court-finds-against-tutor-perini-and-dragados-usa-following-tbm-breakdown
' thanks to the Japanese engineers' contributions to tunnel boring machine technology'?
Are you serious?
The last time I checked it was the USA a.k.a Robbins, who invented TBM and took it further than anyone else.
...dy knows. Until know, he showed that he is a disrupter and that he delivers. If he did not come up with innovations in rocket technology, such as reusable rockets, Boeing and others...