Miami wants Elon Musk to bore a tunnel under the city
Francis Suarez says he is ‘very serious’ about doing deal with entrepreneur’s Boring Company
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The mayor of Miami wants Elon Musk to bore a tunnel beneath the Florida city.
Francis Suarez says he is “very serious” about contracting the tech billionaire’s Boring Company to try and alleviate traffic gridlock there.
The tunnel would take six months to dig and would cost around $30m, the mayor said after a phone call with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO earlier this year.
Now Mr Suarez says he is in the process of creating a procurement document necessary to start the project and hopes to be ready to push forward within three months.
“We’re socialising it with our council members and once that’s done, we’ll put it out and we’ll see what happens with it,” Mr Suarez told Insider.
The politician said that the city would then have to work with Mr Musk’s Boring Company to design, permit and build the tunnel.
And the earliest it could be ready to go into operation would be February 2022..
“It takes them so much time to do a given mile. They’re getting better and they’re getting faster... but it still takes time,” he added.
Mr Musk has suggested building the tunnel for electric vehicles that would connect under the Brickell Avenue drawbridge, that often holds up traffic heading into downtown Miami.
Mr Suarez has not said exactly how he proposes to fund the ambitious project, but previously told Bloomberg he hoped to secure federal money.
And he denied he was promoting the project for social media attention.
“I don’t have the luxury of joking,” he added.
Last month the Boring Company previewed its Las Vegas tunnel at city’s convention centre, which critics say is a loop with Tesla Model 3 cars driving passengers at 35mph instead of a revolutionary public transportation system.
The $52.5m loop will open in June and is designed to move 4,400 people per hour in a fleet of 62 Teslas.
The Boring Company was granted permission by Hawthorne City Council to extend a tunnel in Los Angeles, and plans also included projects at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and a tunnel connecting Baltimore and Washington DC.
But the company removed any mention of Los Angeles and Washington DC projects from its own website in April, according to Bloomberg News.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments