The Boring Company won’t pursue LA tunnel under 405 freeway anymore
Back in August, The Boring Company was already distancing itself from a plan it pitched earlier in the year to build a test tunnel under Sepulveda Boulevard and the 405 freeway in Los Angeles.
On Tuesday, The Boring Company and a group of Westside residents issued a joint statement that they had "amicably settled" a lawsuit brought by the residents against The Boring Company in May of this year, according to the Los Angeles Times. The company, founded by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, said it would drop plans to build the 405 test tunnel and focus instead on building the so-called "Dugout Loop" that will run between a downtown LA Metro station and Dodger Stadium, if all goes as planned.
Elon Musk talks proof-of-concept tunnel parallel to the 405 in Los Angeles Musk announced the 405-parallel tunnel in an evening talk back in May, describing it as a 2.7 mile north-south test tunnel that wouldn't carry the general public—at first. Musk added at the time that The Boring Company would eventually do test rides to get user feedback. The City of Los Angeles appeared poised to fast-track Musk's idea, with LA Metro announcing: "We'll be partners moving forward."
[...] Now, The Boring Company intends to focus on the Dugout Loop, for which it has begun the CEQA permitting process (although it's unclear if a full permit will be acquired before construction starts). Critics have charged that The Boring Company has taken advantage of poorer neighborhoods, like the Hawthorne neighborhood under which Musk's first tunnel is being completed. Meanwhile, richer neighborhoods represented by the coalition of Westside neighborhoods have the resources to fight back. Others might see the opposition from wealthy LA neighborhoods as a form of NIMBYism that stops innovation from coming to impacted LA transit.
For now, Musk's first Hawthorne tunnel is almost complete. The Boring company intends to open the tunnel to the public in December.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 04 2018, @10:15AM
Why is only one test required?
But having said that, if labeling them "test" gets past bureaucratic nonsense, then bully for him. I guess I'm of the opinion that "safety requirements" != an appropriate level of safety in California. Same goes for planning, something which California is notorious for neglecting. UK/London might be very good on these things, but California is a bunch of crazy nannies. Musk is already taking on extraordinary risk by having so much of his businesses in California.
The "test" tunnels already sound like they're in relatively useful locations and will end up with some sort of transportation system installed.
The problem here is that the news cycle is way ahead of anything physical that Boring can be doing (it'd be a vastly different world if tunneling could proceed at the speed of journalism) and Musk's hype raises funds. It's not going to change because Musk's sexy stories sell.