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Mayor’s Message continued

bridge, damaging its potential as an iconic centerpiece of His tunneling technology could be a real game-changer for
a revitalized downtown. us regarding transportation and quality of life.

Our historic district would be obscured in the shadows of Not only would it allow commuter rail to move forward
the train trestles running overhead. Fort Lauderdale’s and solve the New River issue, but we could tunnel the
historic minority community surrounding Sistrunk Boulevard system under major Fort Lauderdale intersections to relieve
would be split off from the eastside just as community congestion on our roadways. Think of the end of tie-ups
redevelopment efforts are creating a renaissance there and because of trains on Davie Boulevard, Broward Boulevard
linking it with the growing Flagler Village neighborhood. and Sunrise Boulevard and maybe even NE 13th Street.

So, I’ve been asking repeatedly: Why not build a tunnel? Then, imagine other possibilities where tunneling for transit
could help South Florida traffic. What about reviving a
Skeptics said it would cost $3 billion and take decades to
come to fruition. They claimed it was essentially a deal- commuter service between western suburbs and downtown
Fort Lauderdale, for instance?
killer to the idea of commuter rail. They told us that we
should accept a bridge for the greater good – maybe with So, we visited the Las Vegas loop and the California test
some beautification elements thrown in to mollify us. tunnel and had in-depth conversations with the experts at
The Boring Co. These meetings included not just their
Then along came Elon Musk.
executives but their geologists and operations managers.
He changed the entire outlook of what is possible when We also met with Las Vegas officials and their experts –
he announced he was interested in building tunnels in the people who hired The Boring Co. and those who
South Florida to help alleviate traffic. Rather than billions oversaw the completion of the Loop.
of dollars and decades of work, his company has touted it
can produce tunnels in months at a minuscule fraction of
the cost.
His firm, The Boring Co., built a demonstration
underground transit line near his SpaceX headquarters in
California in 2018. The single-tunnel, 1.1-mile loop cost
$10 million. He later won a contract with the Las Vegas
Convention Center to build a two-tunnel loop to span its
vast campus. The 1-mile network cost $52 million.

Las Vegas expected to begin using its loop for the highly
attended Consumer Electronics Show in January, but
COVID-19 prompted the show to be held virtually and
they now are waiting for convention business to re-start.
Impressed by the initial convention center loop, officials We hope that the next step will be for The Boring Co.
there now see it as part of a much larger underground team to come to Fort Lauderdale and see how we think
transit network spanning the entirety of Las Vegas’ their technology could be put to work. The possibilities are
entertainment areas. definitely worth pursuing further. We could be tunneling
our way into the future.
Before the trip, we already had a couple initial
conversations with The Boring Co. and they are extremely
interested in helping us address our situation. They stand Yours,
by their numbers, and officials at the Florida East Coast
Railroad are as intrigued as we are. The Boring Co. says
the lower cost is another example of Musk thinking outside
traditional norms, just as he reduced the costs of space Dean Trantalis
flight with such innovations as reusable rockets.
Mayor, City of Fort Lauderdale

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