{"id":20,"date":"2014-05-30T17:07:54","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T21:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/?p=20"},"modified":"2018-01-09T12:07:23","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T17:07:23","slug":"the-plan-to-bring-the-superconducting-super-collider-to-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/2014\/05\/30\/the-plan-to-bring-the-superconducting-super-collider-to-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plan to Bring the Superconducting Super Collider to Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scan1aa\"<\/a>Everything\u2019s bigger in Texas\u2026and that includes holes in the ground. A little over 20 years ago, Congress halted the construction of what would have been the world\u2019s largest Super Collider. Construction of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) began in the late 1980s and called for the creation of a tunnel 14 feet in diameter and 52 miles in circumference under and around the town of Waxahachie, Texas. Planned to be much larger in size and energy output than the CERN Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, many believe the Higgs boson particle (discovered at CERN in 2012) would have been discovered a decade earlier in Texas had the SSC been completed. The reasons for the untimely death of the project once $2 billion had been spent and 17 miles of tunnel had been bored are complicated. Much debated, the most frequently cited reasons for the SSC\u2019s cancellation include the mismanagement of physicists not used to managing on such an enormous scale and budget; the end of the Cold War diminishing Americans\u2019 interest in big science research; the objections of other scientific fields competing for funding; the increasing costs of the construction of the SSC; and the politicization of science. Whatever the reason, the project was officially halted by Congress in 1993 leaving a 17 mile hole under Waxahachie.<\/p>\r\n

Contrary to its ultimate fate, however, the initial stages of the project were met with much excitement and optimism. When the project was finally approved in 1987 by Ronald Reagan after several years at the design stage, 43 states submitted applications to host the SSC. Of those 43, 8 states including Texas were selected as the best geological candidates and invited to submit proposals outlining possible sites. Because the Super Collider was expected to create thousands of new jobs and attract an influx of some of the world\u2019s leading scientists, several different Texas cities and regions submitted proposals outlining the various geological, environmental, and economic benefits of their respective regions.<\/p>\r\n

The Superconducting Super Collider Collection-one of the collections included in the Post-War Industry and Development of the Southwest Metroplex project-is comprised of all of the Texas proposals and includes the Dallas-Fort Worth SSC Authority\u2019s winning proposal. Entitled \u201cA Look into Tomorrow: The Plan to Bring the Superconducting Super Collider to Texas,\u201d the detailed proposal, running several hundred pages long, offers a fascinating glimpse into the initial planning stages of the immense scientific project. In addition to the in-depth geological reports and surveys, the proposal contains vast amounts of information pertaining to the then prevailing (and expected future) economic trends of DFW during the late 1980\u2019s and includes data pertaining to population; jobs; housing; transportation; infrastructure; utilities; real estate; hospitals; education; and the economy.<\/p>\r\n

While DFW ultimately succeeded in winning the site, the Superconducting Super Collider unfortunately died a premature death having reached only 20 percent completion. And rather than realizing the dream of bringing big science to North Texas, Waxahachie has been left instead with the remnant of a $2 billion hole in the ground.
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Construction of the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) began in the late 1980s and called for the creation of a tunnel 14 feet in diameter and… Read more »<\/a>","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p60UnY-k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":298,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/2015\/09\/16\/a-look-into-tomorrow-for-waxahachie\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":0},"title":"A Look Into Tomorrow for Waxahachie","author":"Alexandra","date":"September 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 In the 1980s, Waxahachie, Texas was an exciting place to be. Located in Ennis County, the city attracted many companies to set up headquarters within its limits, including TXI, Chaparral Steel, Owens-Corning Fiberglass, Chevron-Gulf Chemical, Foster Forbes Glass, Tyler Refrigeration, and Leggett and Platt. The city\u2019s population was around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"physics\"","block_context":{"text":"physics","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/tag\/physics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Location Map of Proposed Superconducting Super Collider","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/09\/UNTA_AR0329-001-001_01-740x495.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/09\/UNTA_AR0329-001-001_01-740x495.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/09\/UNTA_AR0329-001-001_01-740x495.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/09\/UNTA_AR0329-001-001_01-740x495.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/2014\/05\/29\/documenting-growth\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":1},"title":"Documenting Growth","author":"Morgan","date":"May 29, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The history of the Southwest Metroplex has been defined by the explosive growth experienced within the DFW region in the past 60 years. The special collections department of UNT Libraries holds fascinating evidence of this growth in the form of original documents, photographs and collections of personal papers, however many\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":435,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/2015\/11\/02\/fort-worths-tunnel-train\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":2},"title":"Fort Worth’s “Tunnel Train”","author":"Alexandra","date":"November 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was a little girl, my dad and I had a favorite pastime: riding the downtown \u201ctunnel train.\u201d The \u201ctunnel train\u201d was actually the M&O Subway that connected passengers from a large downtown parking lot to the Tandy Center, which was home to RadioShack headquarters. But, of course, my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"City Place\"","block_context":{"text":"City Place","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/tag\/city-place\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Leonard's Department Store in Downtown Fort Worth, UNTA_AR0327-076-001","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/10\/UNTA_AR0327-076-001-1-740x422.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/10\/UNTA_AR0327-076-001-1-740x422.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/10\/UNTA_AR0327-076-001-1-740x422.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/10\/UNTA_AR0327-076-001-1-740x422.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":352,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/2015\/10\/05\/meacham-field-love-field-and-the-dfw-regional-airport\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":3},"title":"Meacham Field, Love Field, and the DFW Regional Airport","author":"Alexandra","date":"October 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Dallas and Fort Worth share such a strong rivalry, it\u2019s somewhat of a surprise they\u2019ve been able to work together on some of the most exciting infrastructure projects in North Texas. Take the DFW Regional Airport, for example. 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Dallas political leaders began promoting a plan to build a section of the planned toll road around downtown, from SH 183 to US 175. This stretch of road would connect the northwest and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"trinityroute02","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/05\/trinityroute02-740x327.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/05\/trinityroute02-740x327.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2015\/05\/trinityroute02-740x327.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":278,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/southwest-metroplex\/2015\/08\/31\/making-medical-education-accessible-at-presbyterian-hospital-of-dallas\/","url_meta":{"origin":20,"position":5},"title":"Making Medical Education Accessible at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas","author":"Alexandra","date":"August 31, 2015","format":"gallery","excerpt":"In 1966, the Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas opened its doors to patients in the Southwest Metroplex. 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