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Elon Musk Pushes for Underground Tesla Tunnel in Miami

Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants to build a massive 6.2-mile underground tunnel to ferry his electric car customers around the notoriously-congested North Miami Beach area. Musk and his specialty tunnel organization, the Boring Company, think that the Hard Rock stadium and FIU’s Biscayne campus could host the two ends of the tunnel.

Musk estimates that a completed, fully-functioning tunnel could transport between 7,500 and 15,000 passengers hourly. The price tag for the construction is roughly $200 million — a steal for this era, where the dollar means less and less and the government prints infrastructure money by the trillions. Boring said the project would finish in a 36-month construction time frame.

Musk’s Miami-based tunnel would look like others around the country

Critics of the plan point to Las Vegas as a deterrent. In Vegas, the Boring Company created a 1.7-mile loop under the convention center to help ease traffic congestion. In the tunnel, Tesla drivers cannot travel faster than 40 mph, but already traffic jams are forming.

“The Vegas Loop can’t even deal with #CES2022 during a pandemic,” tech blogger Sascha Pallenberg tweeted on Thursday. “Congratulations CityOfLasVegas, this must be the most advanced traffic jam in the world!”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez publicly favors an expanded transit system, but North Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Joseph disagrees. Joseph said the tunnel would both alleviate traffic congestion while also serving as a tourist attraction for the city.

“Why not us?” Joseph said. He also called the Vegas Loop “cutting edge.”

“We have a lot of development coming, and we want to plan ahead. Frankly, development is coming from all over the place,” he added. “We know they’re looking to put money behind communities that do not traditionally receive infrastructure funding. And we’re a majority-minority community.”

Is such a project even feasible in that part of the country?

City manager Chris Lagerbloom did not commit whatsoever to the project, but he did say it’s possible to achieve in South Florida.

“Engineers have looked at it, and I’ve talked to more subterranean engineers than I ever would have before,” Lagerbloom said of the tunnel’s feasibility.

“Subterranean tunneling has been accepted around the world as a very doable solution for vehicles, trains, any mode of transit. The fact that we’re in South Florida doesn’t have any impact on whether we can tunnel. It mainly has to do with what method, and some polymers used to keep water out. But as far as whether it’s possible: It’s very possible.”

As for funding, other city officials said a substantial portion could come from money included in federal infrastructure legislation just signed into law by President Biden. State funding would likely have to make up the difference.