And when the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority voted to enter negotiations with Elon Musk's Boring Co. on the transportation project it proposed, it drew plenty of attention.
Now more than a year later, there still are no signed agreements and little apparent progress. In fact, the authority's board hasn't heard from The Boring Co. since December, when it sent a draft development agreement to the tunneling firm.
It's a project the city of San Antonio has passed on and that residents, professors and lawyers have deemed too expensive, potentially hazardous to the environment or simply unnecessary.
But the mobility authority is still quietly working on the plan it has said will relieve traffic congestion while providing revenue for the independent government agency to meet the rapidly growing region's other transportation needs.
Secretary/Treasurer David Starr said he expects the mobility authority board on May 17 to receive results of a feasibility study from an outside firm to determine whether the project should be streamlined. And he's all in on continuing to explore the project.
"San Antonio has a great opportunity to grow and technology can bring headlines and show that the city is looking forward in progress," he said. "I know there are people that are for this and against it. I just think that if once we analyze the purpose, cost and if there's any harm to the community, then a good evaluation can be made on it."
'At a standstill'
Details of the so-called Alamo Loop Project — among the most ambitious and futuristic transportation projects in the state — have largely been discussed by the mobility authority's board in executive sessions and secret talks with Musk's tunneling firm.
Chairman Michael Lynd Jr. did not respond to several requests for comment. Bexar County Engineer Renee Green, who serves as the RMA's director of engineering and operations, declined to comment.
RMA spokesperson Monica Trevino-Ortega said only that Boring Co. has the board's proposal and is "reviewing it internally."
Starr declined to discuss specifics of the agreement but said the ball's in the tunneling company's court.
"We wanted their response back and their commitment to the project," he said. "We were going to be at a standstill waiting for them."
The Boring Co. did not respond to a request for comment.
Starr attributed the company's silence to "everything going on" with Musk's other business ventures, including his acquisition of social media platform Twitter, growth of his electric-car maker Tesla and challenges with rocket maker SpaceX.
"That put a lot of people and a lot of situations on hold," he said of such developments. "So, it doesn't surprise me that we haven't gotten any strong response back yet."
The project
The Alamo Loop appeared to be on a fast-track after the RMA board unanimously voted to enter negotiations with Boring in March 2022.
The Boring Co. had earlier proposed its tunnel loop, a move that led the RMA to seek other pitches. It received four more by late 2021 and last March settled on the one from Musk's company. It has said that the system, at an estimated cost of $247 million to $289 million, could carry as many as 112,000 passengers daily on a route roughly following U.S. 281, producing annual revenue of up to $25 million for the RMA.
UNANIMOUS VOTE: RMA picks Elon Musk's Boring Co. for airport-to-downtown loop project
The RMA board — whose members are appointed by the Bexar County Commission and its chair by Gov. Greg Abbott — said it could provide revenue bond financing for the project. Revenue bonds are repaid with money generated by the enterprise for which the debt was issued.
While pitching for support, Lynd repeatedly reminded the public that the Regional Mobility Authority lacks the billions of dollars required to build transportation projects that can handle population growth in the coming decades. The authority is primarily funded by money from annual vehicle registrations and lacks the toll-road revenue stream of its counterparts in other Texas metropolitan areas.
Lynd's push reflected his desire to solve the cash flow problem and address future transportation needs in San Antonio, one of the fastest-growing metros in the nation. But while the RMA sketched out a financing plan it said would have no taxpayer impact, locals balked at the possibility that the city would be saddled with cost overruns.
In September, Lynd and Starr said Boring Co. had increased to as much as $60 million what it was willing to put up to get the project started — increasing its stake by $15 million.
"That's a lot of money that's not coming from taxpayers to improve community transportation," he said at the time. "I don't see anybody else coming and giving us $50 million that's not funded by taxpayers in some way, shape or form."
Lynd, CEO of real estate developer Kairoi Residential, said the RMA had also been working with Boring Co. to identify the route along U.S. 281.
And he said the board was on track to hire consultants to study route issues and financing by the end of the year. But since then, the board has not discussed the project in open session. And it canceled its regular monthly meetings in December and March.
Failed projects
To date, Boring Co. has completed only one tunnel that's open to the public.
In April 2021, it opened a $47 million, 1.7-mile tunnel loop system to carry passengers in Tesla electric vehicles under the Las Vegas Convention Center. Last year, the company built a "connector" between the center and Resorts World casino and hotel.
Clark County, Nev., also approved Boring Co.'s plans for a 29-mile underground system with 51 stations between the Las Vegas Strip and into downtown two years ago. But the company is now trying to expand the project's footprint to add several more miles of tunnels with 69 stations. It hasn't begun digging.
In Texas, Boring Co. has touted its Las Vegas tunnel system as it's worked to collaborate with cities along the fast-growing Interstate 35 corridor in the past few years. It has discussed building an underground transportation loop connecting Austin and San Antonio. While such a project would rely heavily on tax dollars, the company has been working with local officials along the route largely in secret.
Among its other plans, Boring has expressed interest in digging a tunnel beneath Musk's Tesla factory near Austin. It filed an application with the city of Austin for a project called Colorado River Connector Tunnel, which would include a "private access tunnel with associated improvements" in eastern Travis County.
The city of Kyle scrapped a $3 million pedestrian tunnel in November. The Hays County city spent $50,000 on pre-engineering services and entered into an agreement shrouded in secrecy for a tunnel to be built underneath a set of railroad tracks.
Outside of Texas, other proposed deals in Los Angeles, Chicago, Maryland and elsewhere have gone dark.
Despite the company's history of failed projects, Starr said last week he would "be reticent to at least not be exploring" the proposed Alamo Loop Project.
"I take things as they're brought to us and I never worry about what somebody else did somewhere else," he said. "I wouldn't be doing justice to the (Bexar County) Commissioners Court unless I at least participated in looking at it and evaluate it once we have all the facts."
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