Kyle, one of Austin’s southern suburbs, has decided against a proposal to have Elon Musk’s Boring Company build a pedestrian tunnel between a residential project and one of Kyle’s largest retail centers.
The Kyle tunnel had looked like it might be one of the first Boring Co. projects to get off the ground − or in this case underground − in the Austin area.
But city officials say the project was shut down before a feasibility study could be conducted.
“That project has proven to not be viable, and the city of Kyle is no longer pursuing it as an option,” the city said in a statement.
The Boring Company, which was founded in California but recently moved its headquarters to Pflugerville, is involved with a number of product lines based around tunneling. It is also working on loop services to carry passengers between stations using autonomous vehicles at up to 150 miles per hour.
The original plans:Elon Musk-owned Boring Co. might build a pedestrian tunnel in this Austin suburb
In May, the Kyle City Council approved a $50,000 professional services agreement to take initial steps to conduct a feasibility study for the project. The proposed tunnel would have connected Kyle Crossing, a mostly retail development at FM 1626 and Interstate 35, with Plum Creek, a 2,200-acre development that includes about 5,000 single-family homes and apartments, along with retail and commercial development.
City officials said the $50,000 professional services agreement with the Boring Company was paid for by Central Southwest Texas Development, the developer of Kyle Crossing. The agreement also stipulated $76,000 would be available to pay to Union Pacific Railroad, which has railway tracks running through the area where the tunnel was proposed, for any expenses incurred by needed improvements if the project proceeded. The project itself would have been paid for through an agreement with the developer as part of $3 million in funding set aside by the city.
However, the project never advanced to the point of needing to produce a feasibility study, city officials say. The plan was halted in August after Union Pacific Railroad rejected the idea of building a tunnel under its rail tracks.
Kyle officials confirmed the city is no longer working with the Boring Company.
The Boring Company was paid the agreed-upon $50,000 from the developer, a city spokesperson confirmed.
“To date, the city has paid a total of $40,000 to the Boring Company for the Plum Creek Pedestrian Tunnel project. A final invoice in the amount of $10,000 will be processed today,” the city said in a statement Friday. “The city has received 100% of the funds in advance from the developer to pay the invoices … for the tunnel project. “
In addition, Union Pacific was paid $5,700.58 by the city of Kyle, funded by the development agreement with Central Southwest Texas Development. The city said this was the only payment made to the railroad related to the tunnel project.
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When approving the agreement with the Boring Company, the city said the plan would allow Musk’s company to begin engineering work needed to access the area for the project, which was being dubbed a “pedestrian underpass.” The study would have allowed the Boring Company to determine if there was anything abnormal within the subsurface where the tunnel would have been built and allow the company to come back with a design-build agreement.
The professional services agreement the Kyle City Council approved included a nine-step plan, which included a site visit, engineering studies, a geotechnical investigation to analyze the soil and foundation of the proposed tunnel area, and a report. The agreement also started the permitting process with Union Pacific, which was involved in preliminary discussions but had expressed concerns to the city at the time of approval. A number of additional steps and approvals would have been needed for the actual tunnel construction to have begun.
The Kyle tunnel would have allowed pedestrian traffic, along with bikes, scooters and small electric vehicles such as golf carts. The initial proposal also said the tunnel would have lighting and security cameras.
Instead of a tunnel, city officials say they are now considering a pedestrian overpass in the area. The city had previously looked into a pedestrian bridge but pivoted to a tunnel after the Texas Department of Transportation deemed a bridge unsafe for the area, which has high-voltage electrical lines and is adjacent to the railroad tracks. The city said its designers will work to address those concerns.
A Boring Company representative originally reached out to Kyle in June 2021 to float the idea of the company and city working together on an infrastructure project, according to public records. City officials discussed the possibility of being part of a much-larger subterranean tunnel connecting Austin and San Antonio. The Boring Company has had similar preliminary talks with various entities in Central Texas about potential tunnel projects
More:Elon Musk’s Boring Company plans another Austin-area expansion, filings show
Even without the Kyle project, the Boring Company has been increasing its foothold in Central Texas. The company has a commercial space in Pflugerville that doubles as its headquarters, along with it research and development site in Bastrop County.
The company is working to build an 80,000-square-foot manufacturing and warehouse facility on that Bastrop County property, where the company plans to test its tunneling equipment and dig “as many tunnels as needed for research and development purposes,” according to filings with the state. The Boring Company is also planning to build a 220,000-square-foot warehouse not far from Tesla’s manufacturing site in Travis County.
Nationally, the Boring Company has one operational tunnel, a 0.8-mile tunnel underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, and Las Vegas officials have approved a 29-mile tunnel system containing 51 stations under the city. The company also previously had a 1.1-mile test tunnel in Hawthorne, Calif., that it recently dismantled, according to Bloomberg news service.