Musk Scraps Plans For Tunnel Under L.A

Elon Musk’s Boring Company has announced it is pulling out of an underground transportation tunnel planned for below the 405 freeway along Los Angeles' Westside. The Boring Company claims their withdrawal is due to a settlement with community groups.

A conglomerate of groups sued the City of Los Angeles over their move to exempt the Boring Company from its notoriously slow environmental review process.

In a statement sent to NBCNews the Boring Company described the axing of their plans: "The parties (The Boring Company, Brentwood Residents Coalition, Sunset Coalition, and Wendy-Sue Rosen) have amicably settled the matter of Brentwood Residents Coalition et al. v. City of Los Angeles (TBC -- The Boring Company).

Boring Company scraps test tunnel in favor of stadium link

The Boring Company is no longer seeking the development of the Sepulveda test tunnel and instead seeks to construct an operational tunnel at Dodger Stadium.

" The Dodger Stadium project or Dugout Loop is ‘a zero-emissions, high-speed, underground public transportation system from the Los Feliz, East Hollywood, or Rampart Village neighborhoods ("western terminus") to Dodger Stadium in the City of Los Angeles.’

The Boring Company says the tunnel will help reduce traffic in the area on game day by providing an efficient and practical public transport system that connects the stadium to the city.

“Dugout Loop will directly benefit the public by complementing existing public transportation systems and transporting baseball fans and concert-goers directly to the Dodger Stadium... in less than 4 minutes!,” says the Boring Company’s website.

Boring Company determined to make their mark

The tunnel will run mainly underneath privately owned land or land leased by the Boring Company.

Inside the tunnel is the ‘Loop’ system which sees passengers being transported on autonomous electric skates traveling at 125-150 miles per hour. Each skate can carry between 8 and 16 passengers.

Fares for the system have not yet been decided upon but is likely to be as low as $1. The tunnel reportedly has the support of the Los Angeles Eric Garcetti.

Musk’s enthusiasm for the Hawthorne tunnel initially came out of his dismay at the length of time it took to commute from his home in Bel Air to the commercial area of Hawthorne where the SpaceX headquarters are located.

First Boring Company tunnel under LA almost done! Pending final… https://t.co/oWHlwOgCJE

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2018

Despite a lot of hype around the tunnel and reports that it would open for test rides in October, only a small portion of the tunnel was ever approved by city authorities.

Despite the setback, Musk isn’t the type to be held back and if all goes well the Dodgers Loop will be up and running for the 2020 baseball season.