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Elon Musk Claims U.S. Approval for World’s Longest Tunnel (hyperloop stuff)

P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Bloomberg

Elon Musk says he won “verbal” government approval to build the world’s longest tunnel for an ultra-high-speed train line to connect New York to Washington.

The train, known as a hyperloop, would make the 220 mile connection in 29 minutes, Musk said in a post on Twitter Thursday. He provided few details, and a spokesperson for his new digging enterprise, called the Boring Company, declined to comment on the project.
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It’s not clear what Musk is doing with these announcements on Twitter. Such an ambitious project would require billions of dollars in funding and extensive approvals from federal, state, and local authorities. The tunnel would be more than twice as long as the current record holder: the Gotthard Base Tunnel, a rail line that runs through the Swiss Alps. For some urban context: a recently opened stretch of subway in New York cost $4.5 billion for less than 2 miles of rails.
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Musk launched the Boring Co. in December with a series of Twitter posts, tapping veteran SpaceX engineer Steve Davis to oversee the project. In January, the company began digging in the parking lot as part of a planned network that Musk says will eventually cover all of Los Angeles. On Thursday, Musk said the East Coast tunnel will progress “in parallel” with the West Coast project. “Then prob LA-SF and a TX loop,” he wrote.
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A White House spokesman confirmed that the administration has had “promising conversations to date” with Musk and Boring Company executives but would only say the administration is “committed to transformative infrastructure projects, and believe our greatest solutions have often come from the ingenuity and drive of the private sector.”
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D

DBT85

Member
Surely The Boring Company has to come up with a slightly cheaper technique to making tunnels before this can go anywhere?
 
entremet

entremet

Member
Surprised it took so long to get this posted in the OT.

My work Slack channel was going nuts about it. Sounds insane. Elon is dreamer.
 
N

Not

Banned
Pleeeeeease let this be the new superhighway. It's been like seventy years since we innovated there.
 
N

Nipo

Member
DBT85 said:
Surely The Boring Company has to come up with a slightly cheaper technique to making tunnels before this can go anywhere?
Click to expand...

Yea even their 100 million per mile figure would put it at 20ish billion. Would love this but don't see it happening in my lifetime.
 
L

louiedog

Member
I bet it would take most residents of DC and NYC at least as long to get to the hyperloop as it would to get to the city on the other end.

Ottaro said:
What the hell is verbal approval.

That means nothing.
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You need express prior written consent just to rebroadcast sports!
 
G

Gallbaro

Banned
Lol. Yeah sure. A private company is going to build a tunnel in the most unionized and Democratic corridor in the USA.

DBT85 said:
Surely The Boring Company has to come up with a slightly cheaper technique to making tunnels before this can go anywhere?
Click to expand...

There is, it's called not using the Sandhogs. There is a reason all the other cities in the country busted that Union.
 
B

benicillin

Banned
This literally means nothing. He hasn't talked to ANYONE. Honestly, fuck Elon for announcing dumb shit like this that he can't actually do.
 
K

kulapik

Member
People are speculating that the whole Boring Company thing is a Nathan For You stunt, and I could see it being true.
 
T

Tuck

Member
I like how Musk can say just a tiny bit more than absolutely nothing and get everyone to freak out.

Approval? From whom? Approval for a 250 mile tunnel between two major cities is not given verbally, thats not how things work. And for a technology that remains entirely conceptual and unproven, no less. Can he build tunnels before he knows how big he needs to build them, and what support infrastructure is needed? Can he build one before he knows what kind of alignment the hyperloop needs? Somehow I don't think so. Keep in mind this is also more than double the length of the longest tunnel in the world.

I'm not sure how things work in the states, but I'm not sure a project like that can be undertaken like that. You'll be digging under land you don't own - the government can do that, can a private corporation? Especially when an alignment has not been published nor decided on. Never mind the environmental approvals that somehow I doubt have been done. Does the public get no say in this (maybe not, since its a private venture...?)? How does he plan on funding this? Whats his timeline, and whats the basis for that timeline, given that the technology remains unproven? And no, don't tell me he's going to build a 250 test track, I don't believe you.

My problem with Musk is that he can at times feel very click-baity; he likes talking big and riling people up yet theres absolutely nothing here other than his extremely vague word. From what it sounds like, he doesn't have political approval, he has political support, which is completely different.

As always on HyperLoop, I hope to be proven wrong, but I remain a firm skeptic.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I'm pretty sure you need more than verbal approval to build the most ambitious project in transportation history.
 
P

ponpo

( ≖‿≖)
Pretty sure verbal approval is just meant to signify that (someone lol) at the white house isn't against the idea.

It's obviously not meant to imply "some WH staffer said 'cool' so we're starting construction tomorrow"
 
U

Unknown Soldier

Member
I don't really know if I want to make that trip underground. They should build it above ground so you can look at the landscape going by so fast it's just an unrecognizable blur.
 
E

Ecotic

Member
How does this guy have the time for side projects like this? He runs Tesla (which now includes SolarCity), SpaceX, and has 6 kids.
 
S

subrock

Member
While I'm excited and am a huge Elon fanboy, I'm not holding my breath for anything to come of this.

I know he mentioned that they'd be tunnelling deep enough to no disturb anything on the surface, but I don't think that frees him from having to acquire land rights to build under other people's property. Perhaps they plan to follow routes already federally owned or something. It's probably not a new process to get approval for tunnels, but that's a long ass tunnel. Lotta questions...

Recent TED talk: https://youtu.be/zIwLWfaAg-8?t=1m23s
 
T

turtle553

Member
subrock said:
While I'm excited and am a huge Elon fanboy, I'm not holding my breath for anything to come of this.

I know he mentioned that they'd be tunnelling deep enough to no disturb anything on the surface, but I don't think that frees him from having to acquire land rights to build under other people's property. Perhaps they plan to follow routes already federally owned or something. It's probably not a new process to get approval for tunnels, but that's a long ass tunnel. Lotta questions...

Recent TED talk: https://youtu.be/zIwLWfaAg-8?t=1m23s
Click to expand...

The only potential way I could see this is if he bored all the way under 95 or other interstates. Seems unlikely.
 
M

Morts

Member
He'll likely land something on Mars before an infrastructure project that significant is completed in the US.
 
P

PrivateWHudson

Member
subrock said:
While I'm excited and am a huge Elon fanboy, I'm not holding my breath for anything to come of this.

I know he mentioned that they'd be tunnelling deep enough to no disturb anything on the surface, but I don't think that frees him from having to acquire land rights to build under other people's property. Perhaps they plan to follow routes already federally owned or something. It's probably not a new process to get approval for tunnels, but that's a long ass tunnel. Lotta questions...

Recent TED talk: https://youtu.be/zIwLWfaAg-8?t=1m23s
Click to expand...

If it's deep enough, I don't see him having much of a problem getting easement rights. Sunoco has been tearing up our area for a couple of underground pipelines.
 
E

Ecotic

Member
subrock said:
While I'm excited and am a huge Elon fanboy, I'm not holding my breath for anything to come of this.

I know he mentioned that they'd be tunnelling deep enough to no disturb anything on the surface, but I don't think that frees him from having to acquire land rights to build under other people's property. Perhaps they plan to follow routes already federally owned or something. It's probably not a new process to get approval for tunnels, but that's a long ass tunnel. Lotta questions...

Recent TED talk: https://youtu.be/zIwLWfaAg-8?t=1m23s
Click to expand...

Yeah, from my real estate classes it was explicitly stated that the owners of land own and have exclusive rights to anything below the surface of their property. That was the first thing I thought of when Musk detailed this idea.
 
J

jstripes

Banned
As someone from a city that builds subways at a snail's pace, I congratulate Hyperloop on the year 2317 opening of that thing.
 
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