Elon Musk’s high-speed tunnel project may sound like a pipe dream, but the green tech titan has received permission from the state of Maryland to include them on the groundbreaking transportation project.

Musk, who is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors has described plans for an underground electric train that could transport its passengers from Washington D.C. to New York City in 29 minutes. That roughly translates to speeds of about 700 miles per hour (1,100 kmph).

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The South African businessman announced on social media over the summer that he had received the verbal “go-ahead” from government officials to begin construction on the first leg of the line. While some have expressed skepticism over the project, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is ‘all-aboard’ the initiative and tweeted a set of pictures earlier this week showing two fenced-off construction sites featuring “The Boring Company” logo, the infrastructure and construction company founded by Musk in 2016.

“Our administration is proud to support The Boring Company to bring rapid electric transportation to MD – connecting Baltimore City to D.C.,” Hogan tweeted.

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Baltimore would be one of the stops on the Hyperloop train—along with Philadelphia. The city officials in Baltimore joined their governor in expressing excitement.

“This thing is real. It’s exciting to see,” Maryland Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn said, according to the Baltimore Sun. “The word ‘transformational’ may be overused, but this is a technology that leapfrogs any technology that is out there today. And it’s going to be here.”

The company website says there are several advantages of using tunnels to solve transportation problems:

  • There is no practical limit to how many layers of tunnels can be built, so any level of traffic can be addressed.
  • Tunnels are weatherproof.
  • Tunnel construction and operation are silent and invisible to anyone on the surface.
  • Tunnels don’t divide communities with lanes and barriers.
  • When designed properly, tunnels are known to be one of the safest places to be during an earthquake.

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The company believes they can lower the price, compared to traditional designs,  by using electric high-speed trains, and cutting the width of the tunnels in half. They are also investigating technologies that will recycle the excavated earth into useful bricks to be used to build structures, which will also cut the cost of the project. Boring has already dug a tunnel in Los Angeles that could transport cars on electric platforms, and tested his speeds in a Nevada desert.

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