Hyperloop is coming to downtown Denver
Arrivo announces deal for test site near E- 470
Colorado drivers may be the first to escape traffic thanks to a new partnership between state officials and a Los Angeles- based hyperloop tech company.
Arrivo founder Brogan Bam Brogan joined Colorado transportation officials in Denver on Tuesday to announce a partnership to create a network of roadside tubes at the congested heart of the city that promises to whisk drivers and their cars to their destinations at speeds of up to 200 mph.
The public- private players include Arrivo, the Colorado Department of Transportation and E- 470 Public Highway Authority, which operates a 75- mile, user- financed toll road running along the eastern perimeter of the city.
The Arrivo test site will be near E- 470, and groundbreaking is slated for early 2018.
Bam Brogan says Arrivo’s first commercial system could be ready in 2021 depending on funding, regulatory and public- perception hurdles.
By way of pitching the Arrivo system, Colorado DOT officials speculated the network of tubes filled with high- speed trays to carry cars could cut a one- hour- and- 10- minute drive from downtown to the airport to a nine- minute Arrivo ride.
A one- hour slog down the state’s busy Boulder- to- Denver highway corridor would take eight minutes.
“We’re the tech partner in what would be a big partnership involving lawmakers, real estate people and others, but our job is to show that we can help provide a positive ROI ( return on investment),” Bam Brogam told USA TODAY. “Traffic is something people are very eager to solve.”
Bam Brogan said the idea is to use existing highway right- of- ways to install above- ground tubes to help commuters cheat traffic by granting them express trips in their own cars to popular destinations.
Why not just build a train? “I have a young son, and my car is filled with everything I need for him, so not taking my car often isn’t a great option,” he said.
Arrivo’s system is notably different fromthe more sci- fi version of hyperloop, the name Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave to the transportation systemin a white paper he wrote in 2013.
That vision, one pursued by Arrivo rival Hyperloop One, involves aboveor below- ground vacuum- sealed tubes, inside which magnetically levitated pods can travel at up to 700 mph.