[bnk]

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...212-story.html

Elon Musk's tunnel to O'Hare moves just a bit closer to reality


Elon Musk's planned tunneling project in Chicago, seemingly jeopardized when its biggest champion said he would not run for re-election, has taken an important step closer to building its promised transit route connecting downtown Chicago to O'Hare International Airport.


The Boring Co. is now midway through an environmental assessment, according to Tom Budescu, managing director of finance at the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, the organization charged with negotiating the contract on behalf of the city. Boring Co. was selected for the job this summer, an announcement that came with much fanfare, including a joint press conference with Musk and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. After the assessment is completed, the tunneling project will go to Chicago's City Council for review.


"We're feeling very confident that the project agreement is getting to the point of refinement," Budescu said at an Infrastructure Trust meeting on Tuesday.

"We're getting pretty far along in that process."

He said that Boring Co. was working with federal and local officials, including the Federal Highway Administration and the Chicago Department of Transportation, on the environmental review mandated by U.S. law.

Because the tunnel is likely to go under an interstate roadway, the Federal Highway Administration is overseeing the review.



The project's advancement through the early stages of environmental review signals brisk momentum for a company that launched only two years ago, ...



The progression may also be a sign of Emanuel's determination to advance the project before he leaves office this coming May. Three months after he announced that Chicago had selected Boring Co. to build the tunnel, Emanuel said he wouldn't run for a third term as mayor, casting doubts on the future of the express service to O'Hare, which has been under discussion for years.

The proposed venture would whisk Chicago passengers from the city's downtown Loop district to the airport in about 12 minutes using Boring Co.'s "Loop" technology: wheeled carriages the company calls autonomous electric skates. The skates would run at up to 150 miles per hour in ...


It isn't the only Boring Co. project undergoing environmental assessment. A project to build a tunnel connecting Baltimore to Washington is quietly moving ahead, with Boring Co. staff and the Maryland Department of Transportation currently working on an environmental assessment, a spokesman for the department told Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, ….fMusk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. rocket company. A delegation from Chicago is expected to attend the opening next week.



If Emanuel can steer the project through City Council before he leaves office, it could significantly increase the odds that the transit system, called X Line, will eventually get built. "It's a very quick timetable that they're under," said Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association. "But not impossible."


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