Elon Musk's two-year-old tunnel digging venture has proposed yet another project in the Los Angeles area: a one-way, approximately 3.6-mile tunnel from a lot near an LA Metro Station to Dodger Stadium.
Currently, this idea is just a proposal, and it still needs approval by LA City Council as well as all of the permitting necessary to tunnel under the Echo Park and Silver Lake neighborhoods. (That's not trivial: there are at least five separate agencies that would be involved in the process of building this tunnel.)
The Boring Company offered three possibilities for a western terminus of the tunnel, in either Los Feliz, East Hollywood, or Rampart Village. Each neighborhood has an LA Metro station that could be used, and The Boring Company proposes that it would buy a piece of property within walking distance of that station to set up its own station.
However, to speed up the permitting process, The Boring Company says its tunnel will run entirely beneath "public right-of-way or land owned or leased by The Boring Company." The Boring Company will also set up its Dodger Stadium terminal on privately owned property "at or near the Dodger Stadium parking lot."
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has been a huge proponent of Elon Musk's ventures. According to Wired, Garcetti said on Wednesday that The Boring Company's Dodger Stadium tunnel, which will be called "The Dugout Loop," is a "great example of public-private partnership."
The limits of the loop
Besides the challenges of tunneling under some of LA's oldest and most crowded neighborhoods, the Dugout Loop appears to be, in fact, a very modest proposal from Musk, unlike the high-speed link proposed in Chicago to ferry visitors from O'Hare to downtown in 12 minutes. As such, the Dugout Loop is likely a test tunnel (a test tube?) to see if The Boring Company can get this right.
Although The Boring Company claims that this tunnel could alleviate traffic to Dodger Stadium during games and concerts, the tunnel will only be one-way, so the company will have to stage many of the eight- to 16-person electric skates that run through the tunnel before a game or it will have to pause outbound trips to bring more electric skates to the western terminal. The Boring Company says it would be able to transport about 1,400 people per game, pre-selling tickets for trips at an arranged time. "Based on City and community feedback, it could be possible to increase ridership per game to 2,800 per game or event," The Boring Company writes. For context, Dodger Stadium's capacity is 56,000.
So the Dugout Loop would not not be doing anything to alleviate traffic around Dodger Stadium, but we hesitate to say it would solve that particular gridlock challenge. Still, the point is likely not to remake what game time at Dodger Stadium looks like but to test the physical and operational capabilities of this brand-new subway scheme. "Between games and events, Dugout Loop would transport 250,000 people per year," The Boring Company estimates.
The electric skates that run in the tunnel will also not be traveling as fast as The Boring Company has claimed its Chicago Loop will run. The Chicago system aims to run at 125 to 150 miles per hour, but the Dugout Loop will take approximately 4 minutes to travel approximately 3.6 miles—a plodding pace, by Elon Musk's standards.
The Loop itself
A cross-section of the Dugout Loop tunnel, with guideway shelves for the electric skates The Boring Company A mock-up of what the western terminus will look like, with electric skates being lowered into the tunnel. Megan Geuss A view of what the eastern terminus, near Dodger Stadium, will look like. The Boring Company
The Boring Company says that after it constructs the body of the tunnel, it will install concrete guideway shelves to keep the electric skates on track. The tunnel will also be electrified, as The Boring Company hopes to keep it fully illuminated during operation.
Along the line of the tunnel, six ventilation/exit shafts will be constructed on private property, the company says. Construction of the whole thing, including two loop lifts that lower electric skates filled with passengers from surface level into the tunnel, is expected to take 14 months, according to The Boring Company, though it says that's an overly cautious number and that construction could be completed more quickly.
The company assures that noise from the tunneling will be basically undetectable from the street, as the tunnel will be 30 feet (9.1 meters) underground and deeper in some places if the tunnel might interfere with city infrastructure.
Fares, the company says, will cost about $1. Rides will be reserved in advance, like a movie theater booking. The Boring Company will pay for all construction itself, without funding from the city.
The company is currently working on an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), as required by the City of Los Angeles. From the company's press release: "the Initial Study (IS) and Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the Dugout Loop process will be available for public review from August 16, 2018 to September 17, 2018. A public scoping meeting will be held at Dodger Stadium, 1000 Vin Scully Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012, on August 28, 2018 from 6:15 pm to 9:00 pm."
Interestingly, it seems the Dugout Loop may take the place of a project announced earlier this year by the Boring Company to dig a test tunnel parallel to the 405 freeway. That tunnel would have been 2.7 miles, and Musk said it would be able to do test rides to get user feedback.
Instead, The Boring Company website now says: "Previously, The Boring Company proposed a test tunnel under Sepulveda as a proof of concept for tunneling in Los Angeles. However, this test tunnel proposal did not include passenger operations and included only one surface terminal (as opposed to two). The Boring Company has made technical progress much faster than expected and has decided to make its first tunnel in Los Angeles an operational one, hence Dugout Loop!"
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Ars Technica
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