On Friday night, Boring Company CEO Elon Musk tweeted images of his tunnel-boring machine appearing to emerge from the dirt into a cavernous hole, with bystanders at the hole’s edge watching the spinning boring head.
Congratulations @BoringCompany on completing the LA/Hawthorne tunnel! Cutting edge technology! pic.twitter.com/80WbSQekCQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2018
The tunnel began in January 2017 in the parking lot of SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Musk’s goal has been to improve the speed and cost of tunnel boring, not only to alleviate surface-street traffic by lowering cars onto electric skates and then speeding them through a so-called “loop” system, but also to potentially dig sewer, water, and electrical tunnels for cities in a more cost-effective manner.
In late October, Musk tweeted that the more-than-two-mile-long Hawthorne tunnel would be completed by December 10, and The Boring Company would celebrate by giving rides to the public.