Elon Musk Pushed Back on Our Reporting on His Houston Tunnels Plan. Experts Say His Comments Are Misleading.

that simple.

Larry Dunbar, a veteran water resources engineer who has advised Houston-area governmental agencies on drainage issues, said based on size alone, it would take about 11 of Boring’s tunnels to carry the same amount of water as one large tunnel. Lined up side by side, with enough room between them to keep the ground stable, the full system could span hundreds of feet. That would require securing rights to more land and building more access points for maintenance, he said.

And each new phase of construction might bring another round of reviews and mobilization costs, Dunbar said, undercutting the speed and affordability that Boring has touted as key advantages of its proposal.

“The issues start to just get more and more complicated,” Dunbar said. “Not that it can’t be done, but just to kind of throw out there — ‘Oh, if we need more, we’ll just do more’ — well, there’s a lot more to it than that.”

Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, who has an engineering background, agreed. More tunnels would also mean more equipment to maintain, which could drive up long-term costs, Ramsey said.

He added that the county would need to decide on the full plan at the outset so all system elements like pumps, drains and outfalls can be designed properly.

“It would not be simple to just add additional tunnels later,” Ramsey said.

John Blount, a former Harris County engineer who retired after more than three decades with the county, similarly dismissed Musk’s suggestion that Boring could just build more tunnels if the initial plan falls short.

While working on other infrastructure projects, Blount said, he has come across a number of contractors capable of building tunnels large enough to handle the job properly the first time.

“You don’t start small and figure it out later,” he said. “This whole concept of putting in 20% of what you need to see if it’s enough makes zero sense.”

Can Boring’s Tunnels Move Water from Other Parts of the City, and Will the Tunnels Work?
Musk argued that Boring’s tunnels could be used in different parts of the city, not just along Buffalo Bayou.

Some local officials agreed that Musk’s tunnels might actually work better for smaller watersheds that do not take on as much water as Buffalo Bayou.

Ramsey said he supports exploring smaller tunnels for areas like Hunting and Halls bayous, which run through other parts of the city and also need resources to strengthen