Tunnels under Miami and Fort Lauderdale? Mayors say Elon Musk wants to build them

Conversations between Elon Musk and South Florida government leaders about building tunnels under Miami and Fort Lauderdale to help address the region’s transit woes are moving beyond Twitter and into real life.

Late Tuesday, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told the Miami Herald he spent part of last weekend speaking with Steve Davis, the president of Musk’s transit group, The Boring Co., about building infrastructure, including tunnels, to alleviate Miami’s traffic problems.

Monday, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said he spoke with Davis about building a tunnel under the New River to address upcoming issues involving commuter rail.

And Broward County officials are slated to have another discussion with Boring Wednesday.

The meetings follow Musk’s offer earlier this month on Twitter to help address Miami’s long-standing transit woes. On Jan. 18, Musk tweeted, “Cars & trucks stuck in traffic generate megatons of toxic gases & particulate, but @boringcompany road tunnels under Miami would solve traffic & be an example to the world.”

Cost could be less than South Dade busway

In an interview with the Herald late Tuesday, Suarez said the weekend talks with Davis were preliminary; they discussed ways Boring could help address long-stalled parts of Miami-Dade’s SMART plan. Suarez said the cost of Boring’s tunnels, at about $10 million per mile, would be significantly less than what it cost to build the busway in South Dade, estimated at $30 million per mile.

Suarez said he hoped to speak directly with Musk within the next week or so.

Meanwhile, after years — if not decades — of discussion, new commuter rail is being planned along the Florida East Coast railway tracks in South Florida. While there remain numerous details to work out, a Coastal Link is now seriously being considered to supplement Brightline’s express service.

The problem: Should that commuter rail be built, it would further clog up east- and west-bound traffic — not to mention marine travel — at the New River crossing in Fort Lauderdale.

Enter Musk. In a meeting Monday, Musk’s tunnel-building company said it could build an underpass for area commuters, according to Trantalis, at a fraction of the cost proposed by the state: $3.3 billion, or about $1 billion per mile.

Musk planning Las Vegas underground rail

Trantalis said the details of how exactly Boring would be able to build a tunnel for what they said could be as low as $10 million per mile were not thoroughly discussed. Instead, Boring officials invited Trantalis to visit the underground rail system the company has planned underneath Las Vegas.

“Both parties — the city and Boring — seem excited about the prospect” of building a tunnel here, Trantalis said.

A Boring representative did not respond to a request for comment.

The Wednesday meeting would also include talk of building other possible tunnels in Broward County, and even the possibility of a light rail system, Trantalis said.

Wednesday’s meeting will be attended by Broward Vice Mayor Michael Udine, who as a county commissioner has served as an advocate for growing the area’s tech resources. It was not immediately clear whether officials from Florida East Coast Industries, which owns the land where the tunnel would be built, would also attend. An FECI official did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

“When you’re talking to these companies about moving in, just making that gesture of outreach and being receptive and making sure they’re not going to be stepping over bureaucratic red tape, that goes a long way,” Udine said.

If the ideas seem pie-in-the-sky, Trantalis and Udine don’t disagree. Boring only just submitted plans for its larger Vegas network; for now, there is a passageway for Sin City convention-goers. A similar Boring network outside Los Angeles is also in early stages.

But Broward officials said the proposal still merits consideration. Boring told the Las Vegas city council that the project there could be funded without public dollars, though Trantalis said a similar offer had not yet been made to Fort Lauderdale.

“I’m not to ready to dismiss this option — we have to pursue it and see if it applies to our topography and needs,” Trantalis said.

Said Udine, “We’re going to have to build something there — either a bridge or a tunnel,” he said of the New River juncture. “Being able to talk to Elon Musk’s company, a cutting-edge company, I’m always happy to take and facilitate a meeting like that.”