The Federal Railway Administration, the Nation Railway Agency, has brought the boring company, the tunnel firm founded by Elon Musk, to see if it could help with a multimillionaire Amtrak project.
Officials of the Federal Railway Administration have spoken with the employees of the boring company about the evaluation of the costs and the progress of the Frederick Douglass Tunnel program, a new tunnel along a busy stretch of Amtrak Baltimore to Washington and Virginia. Initial Amtrak expected the development to cost $ 6 billion, but now it estimates that it could cost up to $ 8.5 billion.
As part of the conversations, the officials of the Department of Transportation, which supervises the Federal Railway Administration, with the employees of the boring company last month and were told that the company could find ways to build the tunnel in a more economical, megorous way.
A spokesman for the Department of Transportation, Nathaniel Sizemore, confirmed that the boring company was one of the various companies that was consulted for the purpose of granting a new engineering contract. He refused to name the other companies.
“No decision on offers has been made,” said Sizemore, “and Amtrak in coordination with DOT will follow the standard procedures to tender hiring and subcontracting.”
The conversations have raised Conerns about the conflicts of interest of Mr. Musk while juggling with his business, along with his role as the main advisor of President Trump. Mr. Musk leads or has at least six companies, including the Electric Automobile manufacturer Tesla and the Spacex rocket company. At the same time, it has exceeded the so -called government efficiency department, which has reduced jobs and resources in federal agencies that regulate its businesses.
At least in a few cases, conflicts of interest have become public. Trump sold tesla cars of the White House lawn in March, while federal agencies have pressed for the broader use of Spacex Starlink satellite service.
Last month, in the midst of investors that he was neglecting his work in Tesla, Mr. Musk said he would reduce the time spent costs in Washington.
The transport department said in a statement that the estimated price for the tunnel had increased by $ 2.5 billion, and that Amtrak had not yet found ways to reduce costs.
“The department has had conversations with many interested parties in the infrastructure engineering space to understand the opportunities for this project to return to normal,” Sizemore said.
Amtrak had no immediate comments. The boring company and Mr. Musk did not respond to comments requests.
The Frederick Douglass tunnel is ready to replace the 152 -year -old Baltimore and Potomac tunnel, a 1.4 mile route along the Northeast of Amtrak corridor. It is the “largest infrastructure effort” led by Amtrak, according to a report last year of the General Office of the Inspector of Amtrak, which Conerns also expressed on the costs of globe and the lost deadlines. The tunnel was expected to be completed by 2035.
Last year, Amtrak selected a joint company between two construction companies, Kiewit and JF Shea, to build the tunnel. Companies did not immediately respond to comments requests.
Previously, the Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz de Texas, and the current vice president, JD Vance, criticized the award of federal funds to the project for “favoring the northeast states of the rest of the country.”
Mr. Musk has also attacked Amtrak and other large -scale rail projects. In March, it was proposed that the federal property railway be privatized.
“If you come from another country, do not use National Rail,” Musk on Amtrak said at a March conference with the bankers. “It will leave you with a very bad impression of the United States.”
Mr. Musk and his companies have previously intervened in matters in the Department of Transportation. After a deadly collision between an army helicopter and a commercial plane in January, the Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy brought Spacex employees to the Air Traffic Control Center of the Federal Aviation Administration in Virginia to make suggestion suggestions.
Mr. Musk has also been pressing FAA to cancel a multimillionaire air traffic control with Verizon in favor of a Starlink system.
Over the years, Mr. Musk has promoted its own transport ideas, including Electric cars of Tesla, Spacex rockets and a hyperloop, a vacuum tube to boost people and goods at high speeds. The boring company, which has raised more than $ 900 million in risk capital funds, has completed few of its proposed American plans.
In 2017, Mr. Musk tweeted that he had received “verbal governance” to build an underground hyperloop that connects New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, claiming that it would lead to New York passengers to the country’s capital.
Two years later, the boring company presented plans to the transport department to build an underground circuit of 35 miles for cars between Baltimore and Washington, and said it could be completed in two years. That project was eliminated from the website of the boring company in 2021 and now it seems to be dead.
The leader of the boring company, Steve Davis, has been working with Musk and the Trump administration in the government’s efficiency department, known as Doge. Mr. Musk, one of the most reliable lieutenants of the billionaire, was appointed by Mr. Musk to direct the tunnel company in 2018 and was a deputy to execute the vision of cost reduction of Mr. Musk for the federal government.
Mr. Musk had his leg frustrated by the lack of success of the boring company under Mr. Davis, whom private criticized for not completing projects. In a recent interview with Fox News, Mr. Davis framed his efforts with Doge as an attempt to prevent the country from being declared in bankruptcy and said that he and others had bone “willing children or put our lives on hold” to help Mr. Musk.
Mr. Davis did not respond to a request for comments.
Alain delquérière Contributed research.
