Boring Co's Chicago Express Loop 'far along' in environmental review

Electric pods will launch riders from downtown to the O'Hare airport in about 12 minutes.

Boring Co's proposed Chicago Express Loop is reportedly moving briskly through its mandatory environmental review as the company prepares to show its first demonstration tunnel beneath Los Angeles streets.

The Chicago tunnel will connect the downtown district to O'Hare International Airport, slashing the commute to an estimated 12 minutes via electric passenger pods that will travel underground at speeds of up to 150 mph.

The city selected Boring Co for the contract earlier this year. It is currently in an environmental review before presentation to the city council for final approval ahead of construction.

"We're feeling very confident that the project agreement is getting to the point of refinement," Chicago Infrastructure Trust managing director Tom Budescu said at a recent meeting, as quoted by the Chicago Tribune. "We're getting pretty far along in that process."

Led by Elon Musk, Boring Co's intended goal is to alleviate "soul destroying traffic" by revolutionizing tunneling technology, slashing infrastructure costs and increasing the speed of subterranean transportation. Ultimately the company wants to build a depressurized hyperloop that can send move pods at more than 600 mph.