Dive Brief:

• City officials in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are considering a proposal from The Boring Company for an underground transportation loop designed to alleviate street traffic.
• The city commission voted to review the Elon Musk-owned company's proposal for a transit system designed to connect downtown Fort Lauderdale to the beach, Mayor Dean Trantalis announced via Twitter July 6.
• Other firms have 45 days to submit proposals to compete with TBC on the project, dubbed "The Las Olas Loop."

Dive Insight:

Critics of TBC have pointed to the company's first project — the 1-mile-long transit loop at the Las Vegas Convention Center — saying it contains basic failures other transit systems already solve. The model uses autonomous Tesla cars to ferry passengers along the tunnels, at speeds slower than TBC had first indicated. These inefficiencies have drawn criticism from transit experts, although that has not slowed TBC's efforts to find and start new projects.

Since completing the convention center project earlier this year, TBC has a number of projects under consideration, although none have fully come to fruition yet. 

In December 2020, the Las Vegas City Council voted to advance plans to extend the convention center loop under the Strip, connecting it to major casinos and the airport.

In February, TBC began negotiations with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority to create a 4-mile-long transit loop from a Metrolink train station in Rancho Cucamonga, California, to Ontario International Airport.

And in March, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said that he wanted to use federal money to construct a TBC tunnel under the city. However, the fate of this project is uncertain as it would not fall under Suarez's purview because in Miami-Dade County, the county controls the roadways. Additionally, South Florida has a high water table, meaning basements, tunnels and other underground work are rare. 

The state has only two tunneling projects, and its limestone makes it difficult to optimize tunneling, according to CNN Business. Additionally, Florida has protected underground aquifers that can make tunneling cost prohibitive.

Nevertheless, other potential projects may be popping up soon. In May, Gapped Bass LLC — an entity tied to TBC — purchased 73 acres in Bastrop County, Texas, outside of Austin, NBC affiliate KXAN reported. The purchase hints at some kind of project there, be it tunneling or otherwise.