Public documents obtained by Bloomberg show the scope of The Boring Company’s ambitions in Texas. Over the past year, the company has submitted at least eight projects to officials. Suggestions range from ideas to detailed presentations. None of them progressed past the concept stage.
Most of the projects will take place in the Austin area, close to The Boring Company’s headquarters in the Pflugerville suburb. Ideas include car tunnels, culverts and walkways. Almost all of them have never been published before. Each was referenced in correspondence with Texas officials or other government documentation obtained by Bloomberg upon request for public information. Here is a list of Boring projects under consideration in Texas.
Underwater tunnel to Barrier Island
One of the first projects that Boring sought to develop in Texas was an underwater vehicle tunnel near the Gulf of Mexico. Brian Gettinger, Boring’s “tunnel evangelist” who joined the company as head of business development in May 2021, created the project about a month after joining the company. Port Aransas near Corpus Christi is a popular holiday destination for people from all over the state. Roads and ferry routes there are constantly clogged.
Although the company has never built underwater tunnels of this magnitude, it has submitted similar projects in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Nothing new,” wrote Valente Olivares, Texas Department of Transportation District Engineer for the area, in the latest email about the offer. “I will contact you if I need more information.”
Texas hyperloop
Before Boring, Musk had Hyperloop. The billionaire announced a tubular vacuum transport system that would allow people to travel between cities at incredible speeds. He encouraged engineers to build systems according to his suggestions. Some have tried and no one has succeeded yet. Boring’s own plans have faced resistance, in part from regulators who have been slow to approve a system between New York and Washington, DC.
Hyperloop remains in Boring’s plans. A company presentation, marked confidential, that Goettinger emailed to a Texas transportation official in June 2021, states:
“All ring tunnels are designed to accommodate the loading and sealing requirements to accommodate the Hyperloop, allowing speeds to go from 240 kph on the Loop to 960+ kph on the Hyperloop.”
Elon Musk himself has promised that The Boring Company will try to build a working Hyperloop system “in the coming years.”
Tunnel between two major highways
Musk, a former Angeleno resident, founded Boring in Southern California with the goal of “solving traffic problems.” Austin proposes a challenge similar to the one in Los Angeles. Traffic in the Texas capital is terrible and getting worse. As of the 2020 census, the population has reached almost 1 million, up more than 20% from the previous decade.
In September, Goettinger asked a state transportation agency official if his agency would support a project to create a new connection between the two major roads through Austin, U.S. Route 290 and the State Beltway. The latter is colloquially known as the MoPac, named after the Missouri Pacific Railroad, a Civil War railroad project. Highway 290 and MoPac already intersect in southern Austin, but Goettinger apparently envisioned an additional intersection to the north. The next day, Central Texas Regional Mobility Officer James Bass called Goettinger, but the papers did not describe their conversation.
Underground route connecting downtown Austin, airport, and Tesla plant
Perhaps the most promising development in Texas right now – and the only one on this list that has been previously revealed – is the one Gettinger called “the project.” In November, he met with government transportation officials and asked for facility plans, geotechnical data, and the depth of various roads. The focus was on the streets around the Gigafactory Tesla Inc., where the company makes cars, as well as the streets near the airport and in the city center.
Underpass for public high school
Pflugerville, where Boring is now based, is a big football city. The Pflugerville High School team plays regularly at their stadium in front of 10,000 spectators. In January, Goettinger floated an idea: Would the Texas Transportation Department help pay for a pedestrian tunnel from the school to the stadium?
“Probably around $3 million. Definitely less than $5 million,” Gottinger wrote. The official said he forwarded the email to his colleagues.
Musk has big ambitions for Boring, but the company has shown great interest in small suburban developments. On May 3, the City Council in Kyle, Texas, approved a preliminary engineering study for a drilling tunnel that will connect a residential complex to a shopping complex about two miles away.
Tunnel under the railway line
Another project: a tunnel under the disused 28-mile Mocan Rail Line, an abandoned railroad track near Austin. The site has long been the subject of controversy by regional authorities: should the corridor be used for walking and cycling trails or a new highway? Gettinger came up with another idea: what about a tunnel? This topic was included in the agenda of an online meeting between Boring and the State Department of Transportation on February 4th. Two days later, Goettinger responded by email: “Could be a great tunnel application, and not just in Pflugerville.” Officials suggested that Goettinger find out about the lease of the underground part.
Groundwater drainage
The only commercial project Boring Co. in Las Vegas is designed to transport people in modified Tesla vehicles. However, the startup intends to do more. Two drainage systems were built in Texas. One of them in Austin will serve Interstate 35.
“Our standard tunnels are probably in the right size range to be useful, and they will be significantly cheaper. We are not hydraulic engineers, but with the help of local Austin resources, we could do the civil/structural/engineering planning and engineering for this job and then build it,” Gettinger wrote on April 18.
It is not clear if the engineer was open to the offer. Goettinger proposed another drainage system in Houston in March, although the procurement deadline had already passed without a bid from Boring.
The Boring Company Elon Musk proposed to build a 10 km tunnel system under Miami in three years
