Elon Musk's snarkily-named "Boring Company" is preparing to do what it advertises to do best: boring holes in the ground. The company has earned a majority vote — four to one — in the City Council in Hawthorne, California. This basically gives the company permission to test their "Boring Machine" underground, drilling through 2 miles Californian dirt while lodged 44 feet underground.
Their boring machine had been thoroughly tested before, but never outside their private property. This time they plan to test and branch out to areas outside their private property borders, thus the need for permission of the California City Council.
The test will be needed to determine whether their machine is capable of efficiently creating tunnels deep beneath the earth. The boring machine will create a tunnel 44 feet underground, stretched through a two-mile route. The proposed route promises not to go through any private properties, be it residential or commercial, except the company's owned land. After the tests are done, the city can also request for the boring company to fill the tunnel back up with soil.
Effects on the public
How will it affect the local neighborhoods, though? According to a report, the boring company claims that the people will not be bothered in the least, even with the knowledge that the big machine is just underground doing its stuff.
Senior Director for SpaceX facilities and construction Brett Horton said that "They won’t even know we’re there." Sean O Kane from The Verge also writes that the company "assured the Council and the members of the public that they won’t see, hear, or feel any of the digging."
Potential problems
Of course, there are still detractors of this massive undertaking.
No matter how safe and secure Elon Musk's company assures the people, there will still be a worry. The most pressing of these worries is the issue of collapsing soil which apparently happened during subway construction efforts in 1990's Hollywood.
Brett Horton also addressed this problem, saying that the company will do meticulous tests of the soil, and will send the reports of their findings to the city every day.
The company claimed that even a half-inch difference in the soil position -- in either direction -- would be enough to stop the boring tests. They will resume only when a cause and a solution is found.
They promised to be accessible, too. Any and all problems that arise can be taken to the city council, the SpaceX headquarters, or the excavation site itself. The company's operations team will be waiting in the entrance shaft to address people's concerns.
