'The Boring Company' Could Change Infrastructure Investment Forever

Have you played Cards Against Humanity? If not, time to crawl out from under your rock. The game is an adult version of Apples to Apples. It is best played with a handful of alcoholic drinks and none of your family around. I bring it up because the game’s publisher, Cards Against Humanity LLC, has an annual lampoon for its fans.

(Wanna play? You can download the game for free and print it out.)

In 2013, CAH had an anti-Black Friday sale, where they increased the price on that day (and actually sold more than usual). In 2014, they sold a game called Bull$#!7, which was a box filled with nothing more than the game’s eponymous name. 2015—they sold more than $71,000 of literally nothing (though much of it went to charity). In 2016, they streamed the Holiday Hole online. All $100,000+ donated went toward digging a big hole in the ground for no reason at all.

It’s relevant because at face value, that is what tech tycoon Elon Musk plans to do beginning in February. Last December, Musk was stuck in Los Angeles traffic before announcing on Twitter his idea to build a big tunnel underneath LA so that through-traffic isn’t delayed by the overcrowded LA freeway. At first, it seemed like his new idea was a joke; he had the company name and slogan all teed-up.

But he ended the morning with a tweet that his intentions were genuine. This week, he announced on Twitter that The Boring Company was springing to life, and that it would begin boring near SpaceX headquarters beginning next month. Initially, he plans to build a roadway between SpaceX and the nearest airport, LAX. LAX lacks rail linkages, so all airport arrivals occur by automobile.

Such a tunnel would reduce the typical drive time by only about 10 minutes, but if it bypasses major LA gridlock, the time savings could be more substantial. TechCrunch notes that Musk regularly flies between SpaceX HQ in LA and Tesla HQ in Silicon Valley, near San Francisco. This is also made possible by scales of economy in boring machines.

At first, it seems like a billionaire’s pet project so that he can get home a little quicker. Yet the repercussions could be greater. It can be the first proof of a concept for underground LA highway plans that have long been proposed, but never come to fruition. It will also be a litmus test for private infrastructure investment.

This article from Kellogg Insight, a publication of Northwestern University, notes several potential advantages, including larger initial capital for infrastructure projects, better project management, and the likelihood that a private company would build a better highway, as they’ll be responsible for maintaining it. (Compared to traditional highways built by consortiums and then handed over to DoTs.)

Of course, there are drawbacks—namely, there needs to be a profit somewhere. It could be tolls. It could be that a city or state government pays rent on the highway. Perhaps the company has exclusive development rights on land adjacent to the highway. Many state governments forbid private infrastructure projects, and others have no experience with them. Also, the potential for corruption and cronyism remains quite high.

Yet, in an era with a trillion-dollar infrastructure budget shortfall, something needs to change. And Musk’s boring tunnel may not be such a joke after all.