North Texas transportation planners are in touch with Elon Musk’s Boring Company about the firm’s new technology that could reduce the cost and speed construction of tunnels.
Dan Lamers at the North Central Texas Council of Governments confirms communication with The Boring Company.
“Our transportation system is very congested and we are rapidly running out of room on the surface to be able to expand that transportation system and so we’re investigating aerial rights as well as subsurface rights to try to utilize for transportation purposes,” Lamers said. "The Boring Company has contacted us about trying to use tunneling technology that they’re working on."
The firm’s technology is in use in Las Vegas. The Boring Company drilled tunnels under the Las Vegas Convention Center to provide a path for electric vehicles to carry people. An expanded network of tunnels is planned to link many Las Vegas locations and avoid street-level congestion.
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Traditional boring machines like the one currently drilling a giant Dallas flood relief tunnel have typically been designed and built for each application.
“They feel that they can develop standardized boring machines or tunneling machines that can be used,” Lamers said.
It could make tunnel construction faster and more affordable.
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Tunnels that accommodate a subway leg of DART’s light rail system between Mockingbird Station and Downtown Dallas are 21 feet in diameter for trains that are 13 feet tall. DART plans to dig a new downtown subway line that will require tunnels.
The Las Vegas Tunnels are just 12 feet in diameter for smaller automobile size vehicles.
“However, they indicated to us that they are working on a larger machine that would be roughly double that size, that could accommodate two-directional type of automobile traffic or a larger transit vehicle,” Lamers said.
The path beneath narrow Mockingbird Lane between the Central Expressway and Love Field has been mentioned in the past as a tunnel possibility to help crosstown drivers by-pass the Park Cities.
North Dallas neighbors along the path of DART’s new Silver Line rail from Plano to DFW Airport have said they want the trains in a tunnel instead of on the surface.
“What the community's unhappy about are the metrics of having at grade crossings without sufficient safety measures,” Dallas City Council Member Cara Mendelsohn said.
Mendelsohn lives near the Silver Line Path, formerly used by the Cotton Belt railroad. She is also a member of the Regional Transportation Council that meets at the North Central Texas Council of Governments offices and oversees transportation spending priorities for North Texas.
The motor vehicle tunnel beneath the Addison Airport was a transportation solution that went underground decades ago. It is a two-way passage portal for drivers.
DART officials ruled out a tunnel for the Silver Line ten years ago, partly out of cost, but also due to waterways and other surface issues that would complicate tunnel construction.
Mendelsohn said new less expensive technology from The Boring Company could help solve current transportation problems, including the Silver Line.
“It's not out of the realm of possibility and I certainly hope that they're considering it,” she said.
A construction method for the proposed downtown Dallas subway has not been decided.
Lamers said tunnels could be an option for other transportation challenges as North Texas population growth continues.
