Ilon Musk: I will build a 50-kilometer tunnel under the Australian mountain. Cheap

The owner of factories, newspapers, steamboats, Ilon Musk,it seems that he wants to not only settle people on the Moon and Mars and solve the problems of the global energy crisis, but also to deal with the headache of the entire world logistics - the traffic problem. The founder and owner of the Boring Company offered to dig a tunnel in the Australian Blue Mountains. In response to a question from an Australian politician about how much it would cost to build a tunnel through the mountains in the state of New South Wales, Musk replied that his company would be ready to undertake such a project and build a high-speed, two-way transit route connecting Sydney and western Australia, which is surprisingly low for projects of such magnitude of value.

This is not the first time Mask offers hisservices to Australian officials. Recall that in 2017, Musk proposed to build Tesla Powerwall energy storage system in Australia. At the same time, he promised that his company will cope with this task in 100 days, and if it’s not possible to meet the deadlines, then the country will not have to pay the project for the kangaroo - the company will take all the costs. And what do you think? He built and kept within the promised time, while earning $ 50 million.

The new venture of Mask, the company BoringCompany, only a few years, but it is already ready to take on projects of a global scale. Only last December, Musk solemnly opened a test tunnel 1.83 kilometers long and 4.3 meters wide right below the SpaceX headquarters in Horton. Today, Musk discusses logistics issues with Australian officials.

Member of the upper house of parliament New SouthWales Jeremy Buckingham, through his Twitter page, turned to Mask and asked how much the construction of a 50-kilometer tunnel under the Blue Mountains could cost, which would solve the problem of “traffic choking Sydney”.

About $ 15M / km for a two way way, so maybe around $ 750M plus maybe $ 50M / station

- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2019

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Musk replied that the construction of each kilometertunnel for laying high-speed two-way transit route will cost about $ 15 million. That is, the total cost of the project will be about 750 million dollars. The owner of the Boring Company also explained that the construction of stations for entry and exit from the tunnel would cost an additional $ 50 million for each object.

The official liked the idea. He promised to discuss it with other representatives of the Australian government and, in particular, with Gladys Beredzhiklyan, Prime Minister of New South Wales, and then inform about the decision.

In the comments thread, the Mask idea also found positive feedback:

Sydney forever and bringunlimited economic prosperity to the west. Would solve the housing crisis. Enable growth of manufacturing. Allow us to cope with the influx of migrants even increase intake. #brilliant

- Gavin King (@ gavinking77) January 16, 2019

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"This will forever change Sydney and bringunlimited economic opportunities for the west. We will be able to solve the housing crisis in this region, to accelerate the growth of production. We will solve the problem of the influx of migrants, ”wrote a resident of Sydney, Gavin King.

The key goal of the Boring Company is toreducing the total cost of laying tunnels. Mask, built under Horton, estimated at $ 10 million, including the cost of laying the tunnel, internal infrastructure, ventilation, lighting and security systems. For comparison, the cost of the same mile of the tunnel, laid in traditional ways, is, according to Mask, up to 1 billion dollars. The company proposes to use such tunnels for high-speed underground movement of electric vehicles at speeds of up to 240 kilometers per hour.

If the Boring Company really signs a contract for laying a tunnel under the Australian mountain, then for the company this will be the first project outside the United States.

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