Francis Suarez, the mayor of Miami has announced that he will be appealing for federal funds so as to construct Elon Musk’s Miami tunnel under the city of Miami via his company Boring Co. The mayor met with Elon Musk, the owner of Boring Co. to discuss the plans before he brings them up to the U.S Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The transportation system will be similar to the one currently under construction in Las Vegas which could potentially connect Miami’s Brickell neighborhood to downtown, Grand Central Station, Miami World Center, the Omni area, Wynwood, and Little Haiti.
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Suarez proposed that to fund Elon Musk’s Miami tunnel a company-funded, user-fee-based tunnel system, which is similar to The Boring Co.’s plans for a Chicago tunnel be implemented. There, the Boring Co. has been selected by the Chicago Infrastructure Trust to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain express service between O’Hare Airport and downtown. While Suarez has advocated for the project, it’s not under his jurisdiction. In Miami-Dade’s tiered system of government, the county controls the roadways. Additionally, in South Florida, the water table is high, meaning basements, tunnels and other underground work are rare.
The Boring Co.’s US$35 million to US$45 million Las Vegas loop project isn’t a typical tunneling infrastructure project. Rather than bore tunnels for future railway cars, the Boring Co.’s model is to rapidly and efficiently bore tunnels, which become underground roadways, where autonomous Teslas ferry passengers between stops. The Las Vegas City Council voted unanimously in December to expand the Loop beyond its original plans. The next step toward construction will involve a closer inspection of the plans by city staff. The Las Vegas project began as a loop underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, designed to whisk passengers across the campus in tunnels about a mile long. Plans have expanded, as the city is moving forward on connecting the tunnel to a potential loop beneath the Strip
