Elon Musks L.A. highway tunnel will not see the light of day
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By Dennis Romero
Elon Musks Boring Company announced Tuesday that it has pulled the plug on a project that appeared to be nothing more than an underground pipe dream. [1[ads1]9659007] The company announced Tuesday that plans were unveiled in 2017 for a high-tech transport tunnel under the 405 highway along Los Angeles's Westside. In a statement, Boring Company claimed the withdrawal was the result of a settlement with community groups who sued the city of Los Angeles over its move to avoid the project from the slow environmental assessment process.
"The Boring Company, Brentwood Residents Coalition, Sunset Coalition and Wendy-Sue Rosen) have kindly argued the case of Brentwood Residents Coalition et al., Los Angeles (TBC – The Boring Company), says a statement from a Drilling spokesman. "The Boring Company no longer seeks the development of the Sepulveda Tunnel tunnel, and instead seeks to build an operational tunnel at the Dodger Stadium."
That boring suggestion is called the Dugout Loop High Speed Transport Project. It would get road game day fans from subway lines of Vermont Avenue to the ballpark three miles away via "a fleet of autonomous all-electric modified e Tesla Model X Platforms "from Musk's automaker, Tesla, according to a city summary.
It has support from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. NBC News reached out to the mayor's office for its response to Boring Companys withdrawal of Westside plans, but failed to get an immediate response.
The Westside tunnel was the result of Musk's Twitter rants about its 17-mile commute along 405 from gilded Bel Air to Hawthorne Industrial, where Boring Company and his SpaceX rocket building operation have its headquarters.
Video published by Boring Company in 2017 showed a concept whereby vehicles would sink into tunnels and then move along roads
But Musks plans seemed to go out of reality.
On Twitter, the billion in October said the first stage of its project under the Hawthorne City, Technical Test Tunnel, would be open to public by December 10th and offers free tours to all future next day.
While Musk first spun its tunnel as the beginning of a system to bypass the 405 highway, one of the country's busiest Hawtho city documents in 2017 showed that local leaders only approved a pedestrian tunnel from SpaceX's One Rocket Road office to its employees parking garage across the street.
City officials later approved an expanded test tunnel, but it was never clear if Musk's idea of using Tesla platforms as "electric skates" was still well demonstrated.
State Labor and Occupational Safety and Occupation (Cal / OSHA) said in early 2017 The proposal had not received its approval.
And although Boring Company first described its first-class work as "a 2-mile underground tunnel extending from SpaceX property to the junction of 120th Street and Hawthorne Boulevard," government officials finally approved 950m worth of tunnels, less than one fifth of a kilometer.
A Cal / OSHA official said last year that the project will still need "concession permissions" from the city, county and state if the tunnel is under public property.
