Elon Musk plans to tunnel
under L.A. to Culver City
By Brett Callwood
It may have started as a joke, but technology pioneer Elon Musk’s plan to create an underground transport system under LA is gaining momentum.
According to a report on Xinhuanet, the Chinese news agency, Musk has Tweeted a glimpse at the tunnel as it is so far which features cables and lighting.
Musk said that this section of tunnel runs parallel to Interstate 405 all the way to Interstate 401, with exit ramps about every mile.
Musk wrote that “it will work like a fast freeway, where electric skates carrying vehicles and people pods on the main artery travel up to 150 mph (about 241.5 km per hour), and the skates switch to side tunnels to exit and enter.”
One hundred fifty-two meters of tunnel has been completed so far, under Hawthorne near the SpaceX headquarters in L.A. But Musk revealed that the planned route will run from LAX to Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood and Sherman Oaks.
The tunnel “should be two miles long in three or four months and hopefully stretch the whole 405 N-S corridor from LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) to the 101 in a year or so,” Musk wrote.
There’s clearly a long way to go, with tunnel projects costing as much as $1 billion per mile, and Musk wants those costs addressed.
But the progress so far proves that the tunnel is more than a pipe dream.
