Miami’s Suarez, who wants a Miami River tunnel, to visit Musk’s Las Vegas site on March 18
Following a February gabfest with the then-world’s richest man, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will visit Elon Musk’s Boring Co. tunnels in Las Vegas on March 18 to explore the viability of building one under the Brickell Avenue bridge.
Suarez confirmed the
Las Vegas trip dates for the Miami Herald on Monday. At an unrelated event Monday morning, Suarez told reporters that MiamiDade County Commissioner Keon Hardemon, one of Suarez’s former colleagues in Miami City Hall, plans to travel with him. Suarez said he has also invited Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, chairman of the county commission, to join.
“I’ve been in constant communication with Steve Davis, the CEO of The Boring Company, with the hope and expectation we can go up there and see if there’s a solution for our community,” Suarez said.
A representative for Boring Co. did not respond to a request for comments. (Musk recently fell back to second place on Bloomberg’s billionaire list behind former Pinecrest resident Jeff Bezos.)
Suarez is hoping to revive a long-theorized but never-realized tunnel under the Miami River. The concept has lingered for decades, after former Mayor Maurice Ferré first backed it more than 40 years ago. Suarez and Commissioner Ken Russell, who represents downtown, have said a Brickell tunnel would relieve gridlock in Miami’s fastgrowing urban core.
In 2018, Miami-Dade County transit officials estimated a $900 million price tag for a roughly 2-mile tunnel that would go under the river and take about four years to build. Such a project would require layers of government approvals, and any kind of formal proposal from Musk’s Boring Company would have to filter in through local agencies and would trigger bidding requirements.
Musk told Suarez on their February phone call he envisioned the tunnel could be built for $30 million and in as little as six months.
Meanwhile, Boring Co. officials are expected to visit Fort Lauderdale this week. There, they will explore the feasibility of building a train tunnel beneath the New River.