Last month Mayor Dean Trantalis revealed Fort Lauderdale had accepted a proposal from Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to build an underground transit system. The proposed tunnel would link downtown Fort Lauderdale and Fort Lauderdale Beach, helping to alleviate heavy traffic congestion in the area.
Since the proposal was unsolicited, the city had to allow other companies to submit competing bids for a similar system within 45 days.
That window closed on Monday with no other companies submitting a proposal. That now allows TBC to begin exclusive negotiations with city officials.
According to city spokesperson Ashley Doussard, the first step will see the city manager and attorney seek approval from commissioners to begin negotiations on a comprehensive or interim agreement.
“Along with negotiating an agreement with Boring, there will be a significant amount of technical and engineering and regulatory work that will need to be done. Speculating on a timeline would not be possible at this point,” Doussard told Bloomberg.
Referred to as the Las Olas Loop, the project would see a pair of 2.5 mile (4.2km) tunnels built underneath the city. That is significantly longer than the recently completed Las Vegas Loop underneath the Las Vegas Convention Centre grounds which measure 1.28 km (0.8 mile) in length.
Like those tunnels, the Las Olas Loop would be filled with Tesla vehicles carrying passengers to and from the beach.
