Posted on 02/01/2018 10:38:58 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Maryland Attorney General’s Office has called into question the state’s authority to grant permission to Tesla founder Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, The Boring Co., to build several miles of tunnels for his high-speed Hyperloop transportation system below the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
The State Highway Administration granted a conditional utility permit on Oct. 16 to allow The Boring Co. to begin building the tunnels, if the company supplies additional information about the project and it meets all necessary requirements.
But the Hyperloop system “is not a utility under federal standards or SHA’s federally-approved utility accommodation policies,” Assistant Attorney General David Stamper wrote in a Jan. 2 letter sent to state Sen. Ed DeGrange about the project. The letter was obtained by The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday.
“A Hyperloop system does not produce, transmit, or distribute communications, cable television, power, electricity, light, heat, gas, oil, crude products, water, steam, waste, or ‘other similar commodity,’” the letter said. “A Hyperloop moves people, automobiles and cargo. For this reason I do not believe SHA can authorize the construction of the proposed ‘transportation tunnels’ within the B-W Parkway right-of-way by issuing a utility permit.”
Stamper pointed out that any proposal to grant a utility easement through state-owned property “must undergo a review and comment process … and an easement agreement must be presented to and approved by the Board of Public Works.”
“An SHA utility permit, on its own, does not grant an easement,” he wrote.
The letter did not say that state and federal law prohibit the Hyperloop — just that a utility permit alone wouldn’t be sufficient authorization to build it.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
“Hyperloop” sounds more like a street drug than a viable mode of transportation.
Translation: He hasn’t greased the right palms.
Use of existing highway right of way for high speed rail above , below, or at grade level makes a lot of sense and where practical and possible should be considered. Where its been used it works.
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