--- title: "The Boring Company’s Chicago Tunnel Project Might Soon be Dead" description: "Elon Musk's Boring Company is hitting a lot of roadblocks in its quest to connect downtown Chicago with the O'Hare International Airport." date: "2019-02-25" modified: "2019-02-25" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/boring-company-chicago-tunnel-project-dead" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "boring company" - "boring tunnel" - "chicago" - "elon musk" --- # The Boring Company’s Chicago Tunnel Project Might Soon be Dead ![]() *\Image: Boring Company\* ## Digging Tunnels Elon Musk's Boring Company is hitting a lot of roadblocks in its quest to connect downtown Chicago with O'Hare International Airport, [*The Verge* reports](). The tunnel-digging venture's plans to dig a pair of 18 mile (29 km) tunnels for just $1 billion is on shaky ground. The concept has been met with [ridicule]() and a ton of red tape — and it even got sucked in to [corruption scandals](). Now, Chicago's mayoral election this Tuesday could spell disaster for the project. Chicago's mayoral election is on Tuesday and almost all the 14 candidates are either "against or ambivalent to the O'Hare Express plan," according to *The Verge*. "I’d kill it," former Chicago Public Schools head and mayoral candidate Paul Vallas [told the *Chicago Tribune*]() earlier this month. "I can’t wait to kill it." ## Pipe Dream Outgoing mayor Rahm Emanuel — who's not seeking re-election — and Musk held a [joint press conference]() back in June. Back then, Emanuel was very hopeful of the project. "This transformative project will help Chicago write the next chapter in our legacy of innovation and invention," he [said in a tweet](). But those times are over. "To me, it was always a pipe dream, a flight of fancy. But my opinion of it has gotten even worse since I’ve been reading all of these details in the media, a lot of stories that paint a lot of doubt on \[Musk’s\] ability to deliver this thing," Chicago's 35th Ward municipal council member Carlos Ramirez-Rosa told *The Verge*. ## Game Over? Ramirez-Rosa's constituents live in the path of the suggested tunnels. "If you look at Elon Musk’s career — he comes off as a grifter," he said. In other words, the future of the Boring Company's project is on very thin ice. There's one glimmer of hope: mayoral candidate Bill Daley, who has sided with Emanuel in the past. But even he is still not entirely sold on the project according to *The Verge*. **READ MORE:** [Elon Musk’s Chicago tunnel project is on shaky political ground]() \[*The Verge*\] ***More on the Boring Company:*** [Elon Musk Just Offered to Drill a Hole Through An Australian Mountain]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()