Elon Musk scraps plans for one of two Los Angeles tunnels

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk this week scrapped plans to build a rapid-transit tunnel under the Los Angeles’ Westside Wednesday, but will move forward with a similar project near Dodger Stadium.

Musk’s Boring Company abandoned a proposed 2.7 mile long tunnel in order to settle litigation brought by community groups opposed to the project, the two sides said in a joint statement Wednesday.

{mosads}“The parties … have amicably settled the matter,” the statement from Musk and the groups read. “The Boring Company is no longer seeking the development of the Sepulveda test tunnel and instead seeks to construct an operational tunnel at Dodger Stadium.”

Community groups accused Musk of dodging environmental review of the Sepulveda project.

The Boring Company said that a separate, shorter tunnel has been dug beneath the neighboring municipality of Hawthorne where they are located.

In response to an NBC News report Tuesday that Musk’s tunnel “won’t see the light of day,” the CEO said the following day that the scrapped tunnel was unnecessary because of the Hawthorne project.

“Based on what we’ve learned from the Hawthorne test tunnel, we’re moving forward with a much larger tunnel network under LA,” Musk tweeted. “Won’t need a second test tunnel under Sepulveda.”

The tunnel near Dodger Stadium, dubbed the “Dugout Loop,” will be limited to some 1,400 passengers per event, about 2.5 percent of the ballpark’s capacity, but ridership could eventually be doubled, according to Boring Company’s website.

Boring was selected to build a tunnel under Chicago and has proposed another leading from Washington D.C. to suburbs in Maryland.