Miami’s mayor will tour Elon Musk’s Las Vegas tunnels as the two discuss plans for a Florida project
- The mayor of Miami plans to visit The Boring Company’s tunnels in Las Vegas.
- In February, Elon Musk told the mayor he could build a tunnel in Miami for $30 million.
- The city has been looking into constructing a tunnel, but estimated a $900 million cost.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will visit the Boring Company’s newly constructed tunnels in Las Vegas on March 18 to investigate plans for a tunnel under his own city.
Suarez told the Miami Herald on Monday he plans to visit the tunnels built by Elon Musk’s startup to investigate whether it would be feasible to build a tunnel under the Brickell Avenue bridge in Miami.
“I’ve been in constant communication with Steve Davis, the CEO of The Boring Company, with the hope and expectation we can go up there and see if there’s a solution for our community,” Suarez told the paper.
The mayor will be accompanied by several other city officials. The group will be continuing an effort that Miami has pursued for many years. In 2018, Miami-Dade County transit officials said the two-mile tunnel under the Miami River would cost nearly $1 billion and take about four years to construct.
In February, Suarez told the Miami HeraldMusk had offered to construct the tunnel for around $30 million in about six months. Musk’s company has long been focused on streamlining the tunnel digging process. In July, Boring Company announced plans to host a competition to see who could dig the fastest tunnel. The winners will be announced this summer.
The previous month Musk tweeted about the project. “Cars & trucks stuck in traffic generate megatons of toxic gases & particulate, but @boringcompany road tunnels under Miami would solve traffic & be an example to the world,” Musk said.
The Boring Company has active construction projects and planned future projects across the country, including in Los Angeles and the Baltimore-Washington areas, though none are as close to completion as those in Las Vegas. In other places, like Chicago, his venture has beenmet with a more skeptical eye.
The startup just recently celebrated the completion of its first full project at the Las Vegas site after several months of delays in the construction for the 0.8 mile tunnel. In January, Musk posted a picture of himself with three of his children at the tunnels.
Under Vegas in @boringcompany tunnel yesterday with my boys pic.twitter.com/tLfOuiEdFm
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 24, 2021
Construction on the Las Vegas loop began in 2019, but the site has been closed since the pandemic started. In December, the Las Vegas City Council granted Musk’s company a special permit to extend the Vegas Loop tunnel into a 4.6 mile circuit.
The Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis visited The Boring Company’s tunnel projects in Las Vegas and Los Angeles in February. The city is investigating the possibility of constructing a tunnel for trains under the New River.