Newequipment 2752 Tunnel 1620
Newequipment 2752 Tunnel 1620
Newequipment 2752 Tunnel 1620
Newequipment 2752 Tunnel 1620
Newequipment 2752 Tunnel 1620

Elon's Getting Tunnel Vision

Feb. 15, 2017
Elon Musk's next obsession is really boring. Literally. He wants to build transportation tunnels under Los Angeles with a boring machine. Can you dig it?

Elon Musk wants to dig tunnels. Without them, he says, “we will all be in traffic hell forever.” It's a well-timed ambition, given President Trump’s plan to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure projects. Let's hope he can figure out what he's doing.

WIRED.com reports that the test trench built at SpaceX's L.A. headquarters measures 30 ft wide, 50 ft long and 15 ft deep.
Photo: Elon Musk/Twitter

Tunnels don’t have to be such disasters. Advances in geophysical imaging technology make it possible to better characterize subsurface geology than in the days of the Big Dig. Plus, Musk has demonstrated with SpaceX that it’s possible to fulfill government contracts at a fraction of the typical cost. SpaceX managed to reduce launch costs by reusing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket, and by motivating talented engineers to put in long hours to build those reusable rockets.

If there’s one thing Musk is great at, it’s marketing grandiose visions that attract investors and employees who wouldn’t otherwise enter such industries. Automotive manufacturing is boring, but Tesla Inc. is going to bring sustainable energy to the masses! For those who didn’t grow up during the Space Race, satellite launches are boring -- but SpaceX is going to colonize Mars!

We just have one question for Elon:

I’m not sure how Musk will convince people that tunneling is exciting. That said, there was a time when digging holes in the ground was considered cool. During the Space Race, another competition took place to drill the deepest hole in the ground. America had Project Mohole, and the Soviet Union dug the Kola Superdeep Borehole. We lost that race, but the projects brought advances in offshore oil drilling as well as new data for measuring historical climate change. If that’s not visionary enough, maybe Musk can announce a journey to the center of the earth.

As long as people insist on commuting in personal vehicles, traffic will be a problem in major metropolitan areas. Tunnels aren’t as fun as flying cars, but the ground beneath our feet might be the next logical frontier. If things go well, maybe the next step will be that transatlantic tunnel to London.

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