Elon Musk’s Boring Company wants to build a tunnel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale is interested in using the tunnel to ease traffic on one of its busiest roads, and Elon Musk wants to build it. This week, the Ford Lauderdale city government accepted a proposal from the Boring Company, a tunnel excavation company in the city where Musk is located, to open an underground passage to transport people from the city center to the beach through a self-driving Tesla.

“These cars will drive from downtown Fort Lauderdale to the beach and stop along Las Olas, our main restaurant commercial avenue,” Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Ben Sorenson told Recode. Now that the proposal has been accepted, other companies have 45 days to submit their tunnel ideas.

Fort Lauderdale is just the latest place for local government officials to explore the idea of ​​an underground transportation tunnel full of Teslas. But because other cities have been working hard to get their Boring Company tunnels away (or more precisely, underground), the beginning of plans to build this kind of infrastructure in Fort Lauderdale has raised concerns about Boring Company’s past problems Will repeat itself-instead of mentioning the additional challenges of overcoming Florida sea level rise.

Sorensen said that in any case, Fort Lauderdale and the Boring Company have full confidence in the tunnel plan, which has been infiltrating since the end of last year. Government officials have met with engineers and visited Boring Company Cycling in Las Vegas, Even requesting state support Expansion of the projectAt the same time, the mayor also became a fan of Elon, praising Musk and the Boring company his communication.

Concerns about the unwiseness of the project emerged shortly after the announcement.Some people worry that the tunnel might be Flood riskConsider that the city is close to the ocean, and climate change has caused sea levels to rise.Another worry is that the boring company has promised Lower cost and faster construction time, Although experts in the engineering and tunneling industry Say The company did not provide any particularly novel tunnel construction methods. Others believe that increasing investment in public transportation may be a better way to solve the problem of urban traffic congestion.

“From a structural and engineering perspective, it is worth studying,” Lily Elefteriadou, director University of Florida School of Transportation, Tell to re-encode. “From a transportation system perspective, it makes sense to find alternative ways to keep people away from private cars and see if this is feasible.”

Elefteriadou explained that tunnels are expensive and dedicated lanes or rail lines may work, depending on the land, available funds and expected passenger volume.

If the tunnel plan passes, experts tell Recode that water issues, including those exacerbated by climate change, will affect the types of features that engineers need to consider.

“The designer will study all the loads and conditions that may exist over a period of 100 to 150 years,” Michael Mooney, A professor at the Colorado School of Mines, focuses on underground construction and tunnels. “They will pay attention to sea level rise, they will pay attention to what the designed hurricane event will be, and then they will design accordingly.”

Mooney added that the water problem may affect the construction height of both ends of the tunnel, as well as the details of the tunnel’s pumping system.

Of course, water is not an unfamiliar field for tunnel engineers. In the past, engineers have waterproofed tunnels.Consider an example nearby: recently built Port of Miami Tunnel, An undersea tunnel built by the city to connect two islands outside the mainland.This item also The risks of storm surges and other water challenges must be considered.According to the professor of civil engineering at the University of Central Florida, for the Fort Lauderdale Tunnel, engineers will have to consider the soil conditions in the area, including sandy soil and limestone. Luis Aboledad Monsalve.

“We built various tunnels on very, very difficult ground,” Monsalve said.

But there are still potential unknowns. “We have a better understanding of what will happen in the next 30 years. 100 years from now, there will be more uncertainties,” Simon WodovinskyProfessor of Earth and Environment at Florida International University told Recode. “As we all know, the sea level is rising.”

Fort Lauderdale is not the only city in Florida where the local government is favored by Musk. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has spoken with Musk and the Mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, His city also wants a road tunnel.

But there are still reasons to doubt. Some tunnel proposals of the Boring Company never succeeded.A plan to build a tunnel connecting Chicago’s downtown Loop and O’Hare Airport did not Bloom, And the company seems to have stagnated It plans to build a ring tunnel between the two DC and BaltimoreAt the same time, the tunnel built by Boring Company has not yet met the company’s initial expectations, and the company’s test tunnel in Los Angeles is far from the company’s futuristic design. Originally proposed.

Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Sorenson told Recode that the city hopes to be able to transport 4,000 people on the loop and let the cars run fully autonomously.But in the Las Vegas tunnel, self-driving cars have not yet arrived (Tesla is Driven by humans), and due to Fire protection regulations, The system is still working to increase the loop capacity to 4,000.

Fort Lauderdale is still waiting to see if other companies will make their own proposals to build the tunnel, although no company has expressed interest yet. Otherwise, despite the concerns, the city seems to plan to move forward.

“The thing to consider is that it may work in 30 years, but it may not be afterwards,” Wdowinski said. “It’s up to the decision maker.”