SAN ANTONIO – The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority announced Wednesday that its board of directors has chosen Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to move forward on collaborations for a high-capacity transportation project connecting the airport with downtown San Antonio.
The Boring Company’s proposal was picked after the Alamo RMA board considered proposals from five companies for a potential transportation project.
“The Board has continually sought innovative ways to finance transportation projects to ensure a bright future for the community in a way that bridges technology and accelerates the delivery of needed projects. Today’s Board action is the first of many discussions towards relieving congestion instead of waiting years,” stated Board Chair Mike Lynd in a press release.
Alamo RMA staff will meet with The Boring Company in the coming weeks to move the project forward which is estimated to cost between $247 to $289 million.
The company has been working for years to eventually bring high-speed or hyperloop travel to several markets. The Clark County Commissioners in Nevada approved a major expansion of a loop project in the Las Vegas region. An initial loop underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center opened last year.
A true hyperloop, with fully autonomous and high-speed travel, may be years in the future. The current proposal would allow passengers to be driven in Teslas to their destination.
The convention center loop serves three stations and is equipped to handle 4,400 passengers per hour. The eventual Vegas loop projects would handle 57,000 passengers per hour with 51 stations.
Last year, Greg Griffin, program leader and assistant professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at San Antonio told KSAT that besides capacity, there are other questions to consider, including costs and environmental impacts.
“We’ve got the Edwards Aquifer to think about. We have rock conditions that are very different from where, let’s just say the ‘Teslas and tunnels’ project like at the Las Vegas Convention Center has already been implemented,” he said. “So we may have some context here that could be more complicated.”
There’s also the issue of getting to the loop stations. That’s where potential transit partnerships may come in.
VIA President and CEO Jeff Arndt also said they’re keeping an eye on the potential of the technology as it evolves.
“Hyperloop technology is essentially and most effectively deployed when you’re traveling over relatively long distance,” Arndt said. “A hyperloop between here and Austin with maybe a stop in New Braunfels and San Marcos, let’s just say, for example, that’s the kind of project that could make sense.”
Watch former story about the company’s proposal: