Boring Company, the tunnel construction company of Elon Musk, will enter into exclusive negotiations with Fort Lauderdale to build a tunnel in that city, a Fort Lauderdale spokesperson announced on Tuesday.
Two other parties had also made proposals to build a tunnel, but they were rejected because they did not meet local legal requirements for public-private partnerships, the spokesman said. As a result, only Boring remained as a possible party.
“In addition to negotiating an agreement with Boring, there will be necessary technical and regulatory work to be done,” the spokesperson said. After all, tunnelling through the swampy ground in this part of the state of Florida would present challenges new to engineers. “Speculation about a timeline is therefore not possible now.”
The proposed tunnel should run from the centre to the beach and be approximately four kilometres long. Passengers would be transported in Teslas in both directions, as is already the case in the Boring tunnels in Las Vegas. Once automated driving technology is sufficiently advanced, the driverless cars will drive up and down, Boring said.
The project is called Las Olas Loop and is intended to help beachgoers avoid clogged roads above ground. Should an agreement actually agreed Boring and Fort Lauderdale, this will be Boring’s first deal outside the state of Nevada.