Boring Company Reveals Route Map For Proposed Washington/Baltimore Link
The Boring Company has unveiled a route map for a high speed link between Washington, DC and Baltimore. One of the keys to digging tunnels underground economically is to avoid purchasing land along the right of way or acquiring private property through eminent domain. In this case, the route will track the existing Baltimore-Washington Expressway that connects the two cities at present.
None of this would be necessary if existing transportation systems worked as intended. Executive editor Zachary Shahan tells horror stories of family members who attempted to travel by train on the west coast and in Florida recently. In both cases, the Amtrak trains arrived at their destinations more than 11 hours late. No one needs to be reminded of the tangles of traffic that afflict every major city on earth. Such failures are the stuff from which innovations are born. Tunneling between the nation’s capitol and Baltimore shouldn’t be necessary, but it is, thanks to the utter failure of the existing transportation infrastructure.
The proposed route was first posted on the Boring Company website along with this explanation:
“The Boring Company is proposing a project on the East Coast to build Loop, a high-speed underground public transportation system. The DC-to-Baltimore Loop would consist of the construction of a set of parallel, twin underground tunnels. This transportation system would create a significant public benefit due to decreased commute times, decreased urban congestion, decreased public transportation trip times, decreased transportation costs/fares, and decreased greenhouse gas emissions.
“The proposed twin tunnels would run in parallel for approximately 35 miles from downtown DC to downtown Baltimore, beneath New York Avenue and then the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. This would serve as the central artery for a potential future transportation network which would hopefully be extended to New York.”
Inside the tunnels, electrified pallets shown in prior Boring Company videos could transport up to 15 people in a dedicated passenger vehicle or conduct one passenger car through the underground tube at speeds up to 150 mph. The trip between cities would take a mere 15 minutes. If and when the system is extended to New York City, the entire trip would take only a half hour. According to the Tesla Motors Club blog, construction of the twin tunnels would take less than 20 months and could be completed in less than a year if nothing slows down the boring process along the way.
How much would the journey cost? How would people access the terminals? Where will they park their cars until they get back? Those are mere details that the Mind of Musk has already considered and resolved. And when will this all begin? Stay tuned. There are plenty of legal considerations that need to be dealt with yet before this privately funded program gets off the ground — or tunnels beneath it, as the case may be.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
