Space-X was supposed to be building their own launch facility in Brownsville, TX, and it was supposed to be open now, but it's still just a vacant lot. They brought in some tracking antennas and some dirt fill; that's it.[1]
They're doing soil surcharging, so that's intentional. Don't want the castle sinking into the swamp (it's on 300+ feet of silt[1]).
The steps for soil surcharging are:
1. Pile extra dirt on top of your fill.
2. Wait a sufficient amount of time (usually months/years; it's important to wait long enough[2]) as the dirt compresses and squeezes out water.
3. Remove the extra dirt (also important[2]), and build your heavy structure on top. Now the pre-loaded ground underneath won't settle, because it already did that.
Don't want the castle sinking into the swamp (it's on 300+ feet of silt[1]).
"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. And that one sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that’s what you’re going to get, Son, the strongest castle in all of England."
This has been going on in South Florida for sometime. A dirt lot is filled with soil sometimes 20-30ft high. And then just as mysteriously, a few years later, it disappears.
I just assumed this was temporary storage of backfill for a construction project elsewhere.
At their current rate of launches it probably just doesn't make any sense to put a lot of resources into it.
There has been upgrades in automation for the ranges last year which allow a higher frequency of launches. Plus they started launching again from their second Cape Canaveral pad.
I read that even with their own facility they would still be affected by a shutdown.
Apparently the soil there kind of sucks for heavy construction, so they have to put a bunch of material on top and wait for it to compact before they can start properly building out the facilities.
They're doing soil surcharging, so that's intentional. Don't want the castle sinking into the swamp (it's on 300+ feet of silt[1]).
The steps for soil surcharging are:
1. Pile extra dirt on top of your fill.
2. Wait a sufficient amount of time (usually months/years; it's important to wait long enough[2]) as the dirt compresses and squeezes out water.
3. Remove the extra dirt (also important[2]), and build your heavy structure on top. Now the pre-loaded ground underneath won't settle, because it already did that.
[1] https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/countdown-to-liftoff/
[2] http://www.straits-engineers.com/publications_pdf/publicatio...
edit: pictures of the site https://imgur.com/a/0OXkB