Officials in Fort Lauderdale, Florida have voted to accept a proposal from Elon Musk’s The Boring Company (TBC) to connect two parts of the city with an underground tunnel.
Mayor Dean J. Trantallis announced the results of the vote on Twitter Tuesday night, saying the end result could help alleviate traffic congestion between Fort Lauderdale and Fort Lauderdale Beach.
Fort Lauderdale formally accepted tonight a proposal from @elonmusk's @boringcompany to build an underground transit system between downtown and the beach. Other firms have 45 days to submit competing proposals. This could be a truly innovative way to reduce traffic congestion. pic.twitter.com/R7Bh2NPVnl
— Mayor Dean J. Trantalis (@DeanTrantalis) July 7, 2021
The successful vote for the project, known as the Las Olas Loop, does not translate into a contract for TBC…yet. Since the proposal from Elon Musk’s company was unsolicited, other companies now have 45 days to submit their own competing bids for a similar system.
If TBC does end up having the winning proposal, it would be the company’s second public tunnel in the US, and the first on the east coast. TBC already has a test tunnel in Hawthorne, California, and last month opened the Las Vegas Loop, which ended up costing $52 million.
Fort Lauderdale isn’t the only location in Florida considering a Boring tunnel to not only ease congestion, but also save money. In 2018 the city of Miami received a proposal to build a 2-mile tunnel for more than $900 million.
Musk says his company could build a similar tunnel for around $30 million.
