SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has embarked on a tunnel-digging project over the weekend after having the pod-racing event held at their headquarters. Musk apparently got tired of Los Angeles traffic so he is digging the tunnel to spare himself from the ordeal.
Musk is turning into a mole man by first digging a test trench 30 feet wide, 50 feet long, and 15 feet deep, according to Wired. The excavation is being done on the grounds of SpaceX's Los Angeles headquarters.
Reportedly, Musk calls the endeavor the beginning of an experiment. He said that he aims to improve tunneling speed by a factor of 500 to 1,000 percent. He added though that they have no idea what they are doing, speaking Sunday during the hyperloop pod competition at SpaceX.
According to The Washington Post, it is not clear if Musk has applied for legal permits to begin his digging. Apparently, digging holes even on your own property is not always allowed. Additionally, digging underneath public property would require a variety of permits that need to be issued locally in California, the report stated.
A number of urban planning experts are reportedly not quite onboard with Musk's tunnel vision. They say that their recent experience tunneling in the US is that neighbors get worried. There are environmental laws to hurdle, and what is underneath the Earth is always a guessing game.
That is not to say the least that such endeavor would be very costly. To cite an example, it cost $45 million from the LA new rail line reserve budget just to relocate underground electricity, power, gas, and telecommunication lines. Additionally, five years before the conclusion of the project, they faced a decade's worth of lawsuits filed by the Beverly Hills school district to stop tunneling under its name-brand high school, holding up construction for years.
Accordingly, Musk's boring project is restricted on property grounds. It would be safe to assume that his vision of an underground Los Angeles superhighway will not happen in the immediate future.
