(Bloomberg) -- Texas A&M University is considering working with Elon Musk’s Boring Co. to reduce congestion on its growing campus.
The proposed project, called the “Aggie Loop,” was cited in a July 2024 capacity report from the university as one of several possible options for the College Station campus. Last week, the student newspaper, the Battalion, reported that university administrators are exploring the project.
The Loop, which would take three years to build, is expected to cost between $250 million and $350 million and include six surface stations and three subsurface stations located in pedestrian hot spots. The report said it would also have additional maintenance and operation costs.
Officials with the school and Boring Co. didn’t respond to a request for comment.
According to the report, the tunnel system would be an “all-electric, zero-emissions, underground public transportation system” that would carry passengers to destinations with “zero or a few stops,” circulating from a campus parking area on the east side to apartments on the west.
Peter Lange, the university’s chief operating officer, said the project would take a lot of time and planning but is “very feasible,” according to the paper. The tunnels would be built 30-feet below ground. Lange previously served as Texas A&M’s associate vice president for transportation services, which the university called one of the largest college transportation systems in the nation in a July release announcing his promotion.
The project wouldn’t take up surface land or conflict with existing transportation systems, and could grow with campus. According to the study, it could be built in two stages, the first stretching 2.3 miles, and the second stretching two. A chart suggested operating hours of 6 a.m to 10 p.m.
Since founding Boring Co. in 2016, Musk has made a number of statements about building underground mass-transit systems, with projects proposed in Los Angeles and Washington. Few have gotten off the ground, however. The company has just one public-facing operational tunnel in Las Vegas.
The company has been reaching out to a number of officials about the possibility of tunnel projects in recent years. Boring Co. is headquartered near Austin, Texas.
So far in Texas, it has only dug tunnels for Musk-affiliated companies at its test facility in Bastrop and for a project called a “Cybertunnel” nearby at Tesla Inc.’s headquarters. The only other Texas project that has been publicly proposed, a pedestrian tunnel in Kyle, an Austin suburbs, was deemed not viable.
Boring Co. was paid a $50,000 for that project, which was shut down before a feasibility study could be conducted.
--With assistance from Sarah McBride.
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