Elon Musk’s Proposed Fort Lauderdale Tunnel Is a Huge Flood Risk

Officials from Fort Lauderdale, Florida formally accepted a proposal from Elon Musk’s Boring Company on Tuesday to construct an underground transit tunnel.

“This could be a truly innovative way to reduce traffic congestion,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said in a tweet.

I hope everybody there has a submarine to make use of on this new tunnel as a result of it appears like it will be underwater earlier than lengthy. Elon’s tunnel tasks haven’t precisely gone nicely previously—simply take a look at accounts from take a look at rides of the Boring Company’s Los Angeles “hyperloop.” But constructing one in Fort Lauderdale comes with a complete different set of points.

Like all of South Florida, Fort Lauderdale faces an extreme threat from sea stage rise. The ocean there has risen by as much as eight inches (20.3 centimeters) since 1950. Most Fort Lauderdale residents dwell lower than 5 ft (1.5 meters) above sea stage, together with a majority in areas deemed Special Flood Hazard Areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Things may get a lot worse, although. A conservative estimate forecasts as much as two ft (0.6 meters) of sea stage rise may hit Fort Lauderdale by mid-century, which might vastly improve the chance of flooding.

“Ft. Lauderdale is already dealing with regular flooding which is only expected to become more common and more severe given the effects of climate change,” Samantha Montano, an assistant professor in emergency administration at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, stated in a Twitter direct message.

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What would a flood appear like within the Boring Company underground transit system? Not nice. Building underground in coastal areas has all the time been a danger. Non-Boring Company tunnels dug by cities like New York and Houston have flooded when storms have hit.

To make issues worse, Fort Lauderdale is constructed on reclaimed land made from limestone, sand, and marl—all extremely permeable and porous supplies. As the oceans encroach on the realm because of storm surge or excessive tide floods, that geological base can simply get crammed up. This could have contributed to the tragic collapse of a rental constructing within the city of Surfside final month, although we nonetheless don’t know for certain. (It actually poses a danger to present infrastructure long-term, not to mention new subterranean infrastructure.) The geology can also be why houses in South Florida are almost never built with basements; crews would encounter flooding in the event that they dug too far down.

For infrastructure constructed underground, we already know the way is faring because of sea stage rise; the town’s sewer system requires $1.4 billion in repairs, and sea stage rise is making issues worse by corroding pipes. A Miami Herald story revealed final 12 months notes the town itself discovered 15 pump stations and 220 manholes might be inundated by 2050. How precisely does the Boring Company plan to get round these identified points? It hasn’t launched a plan, so we don’t know.

Florida cities are taking steps to adapt their infrastructure to the local weather disaster, constructing pumping systems to ship water again into the bay and raising roads so that folks can nonetheless drive when there are floods. But constructing the Boring Company tunnel can be a step in the wrong way. If the mayor actually desires to handle congestion, constructing raised bike lanes or elevated public transit would supply extra advantages than an underground tunnel filled with Teslas driving at gradual speeds.

“Part of proactive climate action is ensuring that every single new infrastructure project accounts for climate risk, and hazard risk more generally,” stated Montano. “Building this kind of underground infrastructure in a community that is already facing persistent flooding seems like a poor use of resources.”