Elon Musk, Wesley Hunt Quietly Pitch Boring Co. for Houston Tunnel Mission — ProPublica

The devastating flooding in Houston brought on by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 killed dozens of individuals, inundated lots of of hundreds of properties and left the neighborhood determined for an answer.

Since then, native flood consultants have extensively studied the opportunity of a multibillion-dollar tunnel system throughout Harris County, the place Houston is situated. Research have centered on the development of pipelines, 30 to 40 ft in diameter, that might ferry huge quantities of water out to the Gulf within the occasion of a storm.

Now, after years of analysis and dialogue, Elon Musk desires a chunk of the venture.

An investigation by The Texas Newsroom and the Houston Chronicle has discovered that the billionaire, in partnership with Houston-area Rep. Wesley Hunt, has spent months aggressively pushing state and native officers to rent Musk’s Boring Co. to construct two narrower, 12-foot tunnels round one main watershed. That may very well be a doubtlessly cheaper, however, at the least one knowledgeable mentioned, much less efficient answer to the area’s historic flooding woes.

Hunt’s staff has mentioned the Boring venture would price $760 million and contain the corporate getting 15% of the associated fee up entrance from state and native coffers.

Inside two months of this push, the Harris County Commissioners Court docket unanimously voted to review a pilot program that included a take a look at smaller tunnels, with specs much like what Boring had pitched. The commissioners courtroom, made up of 5 elected members together with a county decide, oversees the county’s finances.

Each Musk and Hunt stand to profit ought to Boring be chosen to construct any a part of the venture. Hunt is reportedly contemplating a problem to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in subsequent 12 months’s Republican Senate major. And touchdown a job like this might even be a major win for Boring, which has not accomplished a serious public venture in Texas and faces criticisms for its ventures elsewhere.

The discussions in regards to the Boring pitch have occurred principally out of the general public eye. Hunt talked about the venture in passing at a city corridor in Houston in February. Since then, he has refused to reply the newsrooms’ questions on when Musk offered him on the concept and why he turned its pitchman.

Efforts to achieve Musk and representatives with Boring weren’t returned.

Specialists and a few native officers query whether or not Musk and his firm are the fitting choose for the job. The Boring Co. has centered on transportation tunnels, not flood mitigation.

“For those who construct a smaller tunnel, OK, it’ll be cheaper, however it may carry much less water,” mentioned Larry Dunbar, a veteran water assets engineer who has suggested Houston-area governmental companies on drainage points. “So what have you ever saved? Have you ever diminished the flooding upstream by an inch? And are you going to spend multimillions of {dollars} to try this? Properly, perhaps that’s not price it.”

In response to the newsrooms’ questions, state and native officers mentioned no public cash has been allotted to Boring. County officers added that they haven’t chosen a tunnel contractor and any course of to take action would comply with regular procurement guidelines.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whose workers met with Hunt’s staff throughout the legislative session to debate the proposal, stays open to the concept. As president of the Texas Senate with shut ties to President Donald Trump, he’s a strong ally.

“If Elon Musk and the Boring Firm, or some other firm, can construct two huge tunnels below the Houston bayous in a number of years to avoid wasting town from flooding, I’m all the time going to have an interest to hear,” Patrick, a Republican, instructed the newsrooms. “The reality is, Elon Musk is likely one of the solely folks on the earth who may accomplish this.”

The Pitch Course of Begins

In 2022, the Harris County Flood Management District launched findings from its yearslong tunnel research, which has thus far price almost $3 million in native and federal funds.

The concept was to construct eight tunnels, totalling round 130 miles in size, in response to the report. The tunnels could be large, vast sufficient for a container ship, and buried 40 to 140 ft underground, relying on the placement. Austin and San Antonio have related techniques, though on a smaller scale.

The Buffalo Bayou phase of the Houston venture — which Boring has proposed to construct — is a centerpiece of the design and would run by town’s core and a few of its most developed neighborhoods. The county estimated it might price $4.6 billion.

The overall price for the system was projected to be $30 billion, funded by a possible mixture of federal, state and native {dollars}, and the timeline was 10 to fifteen years to finish development.

Given the scope and complexity of the venture, the Military Corps of Engineers has been concerned in discussions in regards to the tunnels for the reason that starting. The corps additionally has jurisdiction over the 2 federal reservoirs within the space.

Eight years after Harvey, nonetheless, the tunnel venture has not damaged floor.

Hunt has accused the Military Corps of “​​dragging their ft slightly bit” as a result of its research of the tunnel system has been delayed. In December, Congress ordered the Corps to complete the evaluation. Hunt hailed the choice, however so far the Military Corps has not accomplished the research.

Simply two months later, nonetheless, his staffers and Musk’s staff began procuring Boring’s proposal to politicians throughout the state.

Emails, textual content messages and coverage memos the newsrooms obtained by public data requests present Hunt’s chief of workers, James Kyrkanides, repeatedly tried to acquire public cash on behalf of Boring. The paperwork, which haven’t been launched beforehand to the general public, additionally lay out how Hunt labored to safe Musk entry to lawmakers and different officers forward of the formal bidding course of.

Kyrkanides declined to remark for this story.

In February, Boring pitched its proposal to elected officers in Harris County as an “modern and cost-effective answer.”

“We’re assured in our capability to execute this venture efficiently to convey peace of thoughts to residents of Harris County and the better Houston space throughout future flood occasions,” Jim Fitzgerald, Boring’s international head of enterprise improvement, wrote in a two-page memo in regards to the proposal addressed to Kyrkanides and shared with native officers.

That very same month, Hunt spoke at a city corridor assembly about his involvement.

“I talked to him” — Musk — “about Hurricane Harvey and the way we’d like tunnels,” Hunt mentioned, in response to Neighborhood Impression. “He instructed me, ‘I can do this at a fraction of the associated fee the Military Corps of Engineers would do it.’”

Just a few days later, the pinnacle of an area nonprofit wrote to a county commissioner saying she’d heard Hunt and Musk had been procuring the proposal round and that the concept could have been mentioned on board the president’s jet.

“I hear that Congressman Hunt talked to Elon Musk about his boring firm whereas on a visit on Airforce 1,” Colleen Gilbert, government director of the Greens Bayou Coalition, emailed.

It’s unclear if Trump was on board or took half within the discussions. The president’s spokespeople didn’t reply questions in regards to the obvious assembly.

In April, Kyrkanides made an in depth pitch in an e mail to Patrick’s workers. He handed alongside Boring’s proposal and recommended that $60 million be put aside within the state finances “that will likely be matched with one other $60 million” from the Harris County Flood Management District as a “down fee for the $760 million venture Elon pitched Wesley.”

“I consider the Lt. Gov. spoke with Elon and the Boring Firm this week,” Kyrkanides emailed in Might, a month earlier than the common legislative session wrapped up. “Wesley additionally spoke with Elon, and every little thing appears on observe!”

Kyrkanides adopted up as soon as extra mid-month: “Something you want from us?”

Pushing for Smaller Tunnels

As they pushed the concept to state lawmakers, Hunt’s staff repeatedly lobbied Harris County officers, reaching out to at the least two commissioners, the county’s legislative liaison and flood management consultants.

Early on, Houston officers had considerations about what Boring proposed.

The 2-page letter from Boring mentioned its tunnels could be “no shallower than 15 ft to 30 ft under floor floor,” whereas the county’s earlier analysis proposed a a lot deeper vary for the Buffalo Bayou phase.

An engineering knowledgeable in County Commissioner Tom Ramsey’s workplace warned that Boring’s shallower plan may intervene with bridge foundations, utility traces and current easements.

“It discusses that the tunnel could be a lot shallower then anticipated,” Eric Heppen, Ramsey’s director of engineering, wrote in an e mail to different staffers in his workplace on Feb. 17. “I might shortly affirm if it may be deeper or if that turns into a load problem for the system.”

Boring mentioned in its pitch that the tunnel depth is “versatile,” however the firm didn’t reply to the newsrooms’ query about whether or not it may construct to the requirements outlined within the county’s research.

Quantity was one other concern. A single 40-foot-wide tunnel can transfer about 12,000 cubic ft of water each second, county research present. Two 12-foot-wide tunnels, laid facet by facet, as Boring proposed, would possibly battle to maintain tempo in a flood emergency, in response to Dunbar, the veteran water assets engineer.

“One would want eleven 12-foot diameter tunnels to supply the identical circulation capability as one 40-foot diameter tunnel,” he instructed the newsrooms. “Offering solely two 12-foot diameter tunnels doesn’t present the circulation capability that Harris County or the Corps of Engineers are in search of.”

The county continued to interact with the corporate regardless of these considerations.

In March, Scott Elmer, who’s overseen the tunnel research for the previous few years on the county’s flood management district, reached out to Boring executives to arrange a gathering. Within the following weeks, he and different flood management officers met with Boring engineers at the least twice to debate the specifics of Boring’s capabilities.

Throughout one of many conferences, flood management officers pressed Boring representatives on whether or not the corporate may construct tunnels which can be at the least 20 ft vast, in response to an agenda shared with attendees by way of e mail.

The corporate was reportedly learning make tunnels as vast as 21 ft a number of years in the past. But it surely’s unclear if Boring ever developed that functionality or what it instructed county officers about its potential to expand tunnels. On its web site, Boring notes it “maintains the identical tunnel design for all initiatives to keep away from ‘reinventing the wheel’ for each tunnel.”

An April 10 commissioners courtroom assembly in Houston was a turning level.

That seems to be the primary time county officers introduced up in public the truth that Hunt had been pitching them on a smaller-scale model of the flood plan they’d studied for years. They referred to this concept as a pilot program that might give attention to just some sections of a bigger, countywide tunnel system.

Ramsey, the panel’s solely Republican, particularly talked about the pilot program tunnels may very well be narrower in diameter, as small as 12 ft, and shallower — specs that might match the form of tunnel Boring has usually constructed.

Commissioner Lesley Briones, a Democrat, mentioned a pilot venture could assist kick-start an enormous, costly venture that the county has struggled to get off the bottom.

Nobody talked about Boring or Musk explicitly till Commissioner Rodney Ellis, a Democrat, mentioned he’d gotten wind that the tech billionaire may be concerned.

“I’ve heard the entire tales about Elon Musk having a tunneling firm,” Ellis mentioned. “I’ve bought fairly good ears. I’ve bought good Republican mates, too, now.”

He questioned the pitch, saying he was fearful it might take the county off observe.

Nonetheless, Ellis and the entire commissioners unanimously voted to provide a white paper learning the concept of a scaled-down pilot venture. In addition they voted to ask the state for flood mitigation funds. The vote didn’t require the county to decide to a selected venture.

Later that month, data present the county’s legislative liaison reached out to workers for state Sen. Joan Huffman, a Houston Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Finance, to point the county’s assist for a $60 million finances rider for “underground flood threat discount techniques in Harris County.”

A two-page memo explaining the pilot venture included with the request didn’t point out Musk or Boring and nonetheless referenced the bigger 30- to 40-foot tunnels.

What’s in It for Musk’s Allies

Hunt has been a number one voice on the necessity for flood mitigation throughout his quick time in Congress.

Final 12 months, he partnered with Democratic U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher to order the Military Corps of Engineers to maneuver ahead with the underground tunnel research. The hassle was applauded as a bipartisan victory.

However Fletcher, a Democrat, mentioned she was not concerned in Hunt’s work with Musk on the Boring proposal and has “not heard from anybody advocating for it.” She mentioned she’s labored with Military Corps of Engineers and native communities “on a clear, knowledgeable, community-driven effort to handle water conveyance and flood management in our area.”

A West Level graduate and former Military captain, Hunt has formed a political model that appeals to each GOP insiders and MAGA-leaning voters. He was a daily at Trump marketing campaign occasions in and out of doors Texas and secured a prime-time talking slot on the 2024 Republican Nationwide Conference. He’s the one Black Republican within the Texas congressional delegation.

But when Hunt enters the U.S. Senate race in opposition to Cornyn, he’ll doubtless want a high-profile political win to face out, in response to Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor on the College of Houston, as incumbent senators in Texas have received almost each major over the previous few many years.

Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton can also be difficult Cornyn within the major.

Given the unstable dynamic between Trump and Musk, aligning with the latter carries political threat but in addition the potential for main reward, Rottinghaus mentioned.

“Hunt definitely is well-known sufficient as a member in his district, however the issue is that whenever you’re in Congress operating for a statewide workplace, your base assist can generally be very provincial,” Rottinghaus mentioned. “To companion with Musk would offer for a form of nationwide profile that Hunt would should be profitable.”

Musk has tapped native politicians when pursuing related large initiatives elsewhere.

In Tennessee, Republican leaders just lately introduced that Boring would construct a transit tunnel for automobiles from downtown Nashville to the close by airport. Town’s mayor and different Democratic leaders have raised questions on an absence of transparency, aggressive bidding and environmental planning. At a public assembly in early August, a Boring official mentioned the corporate would search public enter for the venture however didn’t reply reporters’ questions on why they’d not but finished so, in response to the Nashville Banner.

In Las Vegas, the place Boring constructed a transit tunnel system, the corporate was capable of keep away from most of the prolonged governmental opinions typical of those sorts of initiatives as a result of it’s privately operated and receives no federal funding, ProPublica beforehand reported.

In 2022, Bloomberg reported the corporate had pitched eight initiatives to Texas officers. Two had been water drainage initiatives in Austin and Houston. Neither seems to have been constructed.

If Boring secures a part of the Houston job, it might look like the corporate’s first public flood management venture. The corporate lists solely transportation-related initiatives on its web site.

Texas legislation requires county governments to open giant public initiatives to aggressive bidding and provides all potential contractors an equal shot below the identical situations.

Whereas the legislation doesn’t explicitly bar native officers from discussing initiatives with particular person firms forward of time, that form of early outreach — although frequent in some locations — hasn’t been expressly licensed by state courts or the lawyer basic, in response to authorized steering from the Texas Municipal League, which gives authorized steering to native authorities officers.

Emily Woodell, the spokesperson for the Harris County Flood Management District, mentioned the company has not shared any delicate data with Boring in regards to the Houston venture and solely met with the corporate to know its capabilities.

Ramsey, the county commissioner, instructed the newsrooms he believes there’s nothing flawed with officers entertaining non-public pitches earlier than the formal bidding course of begins.

“All firms which may have an curiosity in it, which may perceive and supply us data, definitely we’d be open to listening,” Ramsey mentioned.

What’s Subsequent

The way forward for the venture, and Musk’s involvement, are nonetheless up within the air.

The state by no means granted Boring the $60 million it needed for the venture. Huffman, the senator overseeing the finance committee, confirmed the rider was by no means positioned within the state finances and instructed the newsrooms she had nothing to do with the proposal.

“The one involvement my workplace had with this proposal was when Rep. Hunt’s chief of workers reached out to my scheduler to rearrange a gathering between Rep. Hunt and me, nevertheless it by no means passed off,” she mentioned in a press release.

County officers additionally instructed the newsrooms that they haven’t supplied any public cash to Musk.

Nonetheless, in June, the Harris County Flood Management District produced the pilot venture report that commissioners voted for within the spring, taking a look at a scaled-back model of the unique tunnel design. This white paper proposed specializing in just a few segments of the countywide tunnel system and regarded tunnels as small as 10 ft in diameter as an actual possibility — effectively inside Boring’s capability to assemble.

The white paper additionally floated the concept of a public-private partnership permitting a non-public agency to design, construct and even run the system afterward, simply as Boring has finished elsewhere.

It doesn’t seem that this report has been launched to the general public. The flood management district supplied it to the newsrooms upon request.

Carlos Gomez, appearing public affairs chief for the Military Corps of Engineers’ Galveston District, instructed the newsrooms he had not heard in regards to the pilot venture doubtlessly involving The Boring Co. and couldn’t say if his company would have an interest.

After the newsrooms offered them with the findings of this investigation, Briones and Ramsey emphasised they aren’t dedicated to 1 specific firm and that every one options could be topic to due diligence. Ellis instructed the newsrooms that Musk shouldn’t be concerned, calling him “somebody who has proven blatant disregard for democratic establishments and environmental protections.”

Harris County Decide Lina Hidalgo and Commissioner Adrian Garcia, each Democrats, declined to remark.

Woodell, with the flood management district, mentioned there have been no additional discussions with Boring in months. She mentioned the county has checked out smaller tunnels earlier than however acknowledged that engineering analyses discovered large-diameter tunnels could be the best possibility for a countywide system. Woodell added the county would possibly nonetheless think about smaller tunnels in “particular areas.”

“There’ll by no means be a single answer to flooding in Harris County,” she mentioned.

If Harris County strikes ahead with a smaller-scale venture just like the one Hunt desires, which doesn’t depend on federal funding, the method to design and construct it may nonetheless take as much as a decade.

Jim Blackburn, co-director of Rice College’s Extreme Storm Prediction, Schooling and Evacuation from Disasters Middle, mentioned Musk’s slimmer tunnels would possibly nonetheless show helpful. However he warned in opposition to handing a venture of this magnitude to a non-public firm with out correct vetting.

“The size of the issue we have now actually calls for, I believe, all of us to be open-minded about concepts,” Blackburn instructed the newsrooms. “Invite them in. Simply don’t give them the contract tomorrow.”