The
Boring Company's proposed map for a Los Angeles tunnel system.
The red section represents the area where the company hopes to
build its 6.5-mile "proof of concept" tunnel.
The
Boring Company
Elon Musk founded the Boring Company to build
underground tunnels that could create the infrastructure for
new forms of transit, like Hyperloop.
Boring Company operations chief Jehn Balajadia received
a mixed response at a city council meeting for LA County's
Culver City when he argued for permission to build part of a
6.5-mile "proof of concept tunnel" beneath the city.
The meeting showed that the Boring Company still has
plenty of work to do persuading city governments before its
dreams of revolutionizing transportation can become a
reality.
Elon Musk founded the
Boring Company because he was frustrated with Los Angeles'
notorious traffic. By building a series of underground tunnels,
Musk hopes the company will create the infrastructure for new
forms of transit, like
Hyperloop, that will allow people to travel faster and face
less congestion.
But the Boring Company is still in the early stages of testing
its tunnel-digging technology. While it received approval to dig
a two-mile
test tunnel beneath the headquarters of Musk's space
travel company, SpaceX, in Hawthorne, California, the Boring
Company will have to convince a number of local governments that
its tunnels will be useful in order to conduct enough research
and development to make an operational tunnel network a reality.
City officials have questions about the plan
The problem is that city and local governments may be hesitant to
accept liability for the risks the tunnels may pose to existing
infrastructure or let private companies compete with public
transit systems. These concerns were illustrated at a city
council meeting on Monday in LA County's Culver City. During the
meeting, Jehn Balajadia, the Boring Company's operations chief,
argued for permission to put part of a 6.5 mile
"proof of concept" tunnel beneath Culver City.
The city council members who listened to Balajadia expressed
mixed feelings about the proposal, according to
Wired.
"I don’t really trust a private company to watch out for
equity because I haven’t seen it happen," councilwoman Meghan
Sahli-Wells reportedly said. “It looks super sexy and super easy
but it’s half-baked from a public perspective."
Mayor Jeffrey Cooper reportedly had a different
perspective. "I think there’s still so much to vet out and so
much technology that’s going to move forward, but we’re a very
forward-thinking city," he reportedly said. "I think it would be
foolhardy of us to just say no."
There's a much larger debate going on
Musk found himself in the middle of a
similar debate on Twitter in December 2017 after news outlets
reported critical statements Musk made about public
transportation at a tech conference. After public transportation
advocate Jarrett Walker criticized
what he characterized as Musk's "hatred of sharing space with
strangers," Musk
called Walker an "idiot." Musk later explained that he likes
many forms of public transportation but thought that major cities
were not fully equipped to solve traffic and congestion
issues.
The Boring Company has already received approval to dig a
10.3-mile tunnel in Baltimore beneath the Baltimore-Washington
Parkway and has discussed constructing a tunnel between downtown
Chicago and O'Hare International Airport with Chicago Mayor Rahm
Emanuel.
Getting approval for the company's first full tunnel system in a
major city may be the Boring Company's biggest hurdle, as being
able to prove its ability to successfully build a tunnel network
could make other cities less hesitant about the company's plans.
The Boring Company did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
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