Elon Musk tweets a date for the opening of his first Los Angeles tunnel

Enlarge / An image of the Hawthorne test tunnel under construction. (credit: The Boring Company)

On Sunday night, Tesla, SpaceX, and Boring Company CEO Elon Musk tweeted “The first tunnel is almost done,” adding that the tunnel will open December 10. “The first tunnel” refers to the initial tunnel that The Boring Company has been digging under the streets of Hawthorne.

Work began on that project around the start of 2017, when Musk moved excavation equipment into what was then SpaceX’s tiny employee parking lot and began digging. Since then, Musk has purchased a boring machine to tunnel under the Los Angeles neighborhood with the hope of making modifications to the machinery that will allow tunnels to be dug more quickly.

According to The Boring Company website, the Hawthorne tunnel “leaves SpaceX property (parking lot east of Crenshaw Boulevard and south of 120th Street), turns west under 120th Street, and remains under 120th Street for up to 2-miles.” Musk tweeted last night that pods in the tunnel will achieve a top speed of 155mph (250km/h). The CEO added that there will be an opening event on the evening of December 10 and free rides for the public on the following day.