Last month, the newsrooms reported that Musk’s tunneling company, The Boring Co., has been lobbying elected officials for months to allow it to build tunnels under Houston for flood mitigation. Boring has proposed digging two 12-foot-wide tunnels beneath Buffalo Bayou — the main waterway running through central Houston — to carry stormwater out of neighborhoods and toward the Gulf of Mexico during major storms. Experts say, however, that larger tunnels, closer to 30 to 40 feet in diameter, could carry far more water and be more effective.

Musk’s proposal carries a lower price tag than the estimated cost of the larger system the flood control district has spent years and millions of dollars studying. But that’s partly because the two are strikingly different proposals.

Flood control experts also maintained that the reduced price is somewhat proportional to the reduced capacity of Boring’s narrower tunnels. Two 12-foot tunnels would provide less than one-fifth of the volume that a single 40-foot tunnel offers.

That means they would divert less water from vulnerable areas than one large tunnel.

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Limp headline about serial fraud going ‘nuh uh.’

    Didn’t the fucker outright admit he scammed California about this exact thing?

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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      1 month ago

      This is for water, was California for water? I thought California was for underground tunnels for cars or something.

      I agree with you about the headline.

      • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        The point was preventing a recommended fix by lying about price and capacity. In that case, it was about cars, but it’s the same snake-oil act to stop the state from spending money to solve a problem.

  • _core@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Why bother entertaining him? He’s just going to take the money and bail. Like he did with his car tunnel.