Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s sudden decision not to run again has delivered a serious blow to controversial billionaire Elon Musk’s dream of revolutionizing public transportation with high-speed underground transit.

Emanuel’s departure robs Musk’s proposal for a high-speed tunnel to O’Hare International Airport of its strongest political backer, notes DePaul University professor and transportation expert Joseph Schwieterman.

Musk’s upstart Boring Co. beat three other teams on June 14 to win the exclusive right to negotiate a design-build-operate-maintain contract with the city of Chicago.

马斯克的提议要求以150英里 /小时的速度通过从芝加哥市中心到O'Hare的16英里隧道运送乘客，乘坐八轮“滑板”汽车，以修改后的Tesla Model X底盘建造。

无聊的公司also recently unveiled plans for a tunnel/high-speed transit system from Los Angeles International Airport to Dodger Stadium.

There is no guarantee Emanuel’s successor will have the desire or political capital to see the complex and challenging project through, Schwieterman said.

“I think doom is too strong of a word,” DePaul’s Schwieterman said. “This ruptures or weakens the foundation for the whole initiative, which is going to require a whole lot political will.”

尽管如此，还为时过早，还为时过早，伊曼纽尔（Emanuel）还剩下将近一年的时间。

“I think the mayor knows how to get things done,” Schwieterman said. “He may work aggressively to keep the (O’Hare) project on track.”

However, David Greising, president of the Better Government Association, argues it will be Chicago’s bid for Amazon’s H2Q that may become Emanuel’s focus.

The nonprofit watchdog group has sued the city-backed Chicago Infrastructure Trust for access to records related to Musk’s O’Hare tunnel proposal.

随着芝加哥变幻莫测的政治、麝香also is dealing with some self-inflicted wounds that could undermine his high-speed O’Hare tunnel plan.

马斯克在9月6日出现在喜剧演员乔·罗根（Joe Rogan）的播客上，从烟草/锅的关节上拖了一段拖累，并沉迷于Boring Co.是如何作为“业余爱好公司”开始的，然后在他决定真实之前开了个玩笑。

马斯克还通过在推特上发布了将公司私下并扭转决定的愿望来推特，使他的汽车业务特斯拉陷入了争议。诉讼迅速随之而来，以及新闻报道将马斯克描绘成过度劳累和疲倦的神经。一些报告contained speculation about his ability to steer Tesla to profitability.

DePaul的Schwieterman说：“这并不令人安慰。”

Yet even as he faces mounting challenges, the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur is assembling a team of industry veterans and newcomers with which to pursue his dreams of transforming public transportation. Musk’s upstart firm beat three other teams on June 14 to win the exclusive right to negotiate a design-build-operate-maintain contract with the City of Chicago.

In April The Boring Co. hired away Mike Wongkaew from Mott MacDonald, where he worked for decade as principal engineer (structures) and tunnel design manager, according to posts on LinkedIn.

Before Mott MacDonald, Wongkaew worked for Parsons Brinckerhoff. He will be The Boring Co.'s chief tunnel engineer.

Mott MacDonald had been part of a consortium of companies that made the shortlist for the Chicago tunnel project, only to lose out to Musk. The group also included Meridiam, Antartica Capital, JLC Infrastructure, and First Transit.

Boring Co.的结构工程设计师Patrick O’Leary于去年在Virgin Orbit短暂停留后加入。

O’Leary之前在另一家马斯克公司SpaceX工作了13年。他在工程学方面的工作记录可以追溯到1970年代，其中包括诺斯罗普·格鲁曼（Northrop Grumman），《星际研究》（Starsys Research）和雷神（Raytheon）等。

Michael Sagan, who was one of the first Musk executives to look at the Chicago tunnel project, is also a relatively old hand, having worked as deputy general counsel at SpaceX for nearly a decade.

其他最近的员工

Still, not everyone on the engineering side has such an extensive resume.

去年秋天，这家Boring Co.聘请了Ware Malcomb的培训工程师Arwa Tizani，在那里他为商业业务做了公用事业设计和现场计划。他以前的经历包括四年前担任圣安娜市的工程实习生。

该公司的监管顾问Ashley Steinberg将在获得所需的环境许可方面发挥作用。斯坦伯格（Steinberg）一直在推动从中国进口的特朗普隧道零件的关税豁免，他于2011年毕业于斯坦福大学法学院。Steinberg曾在华盛顿国际贸易集团（Washington）的高级助理，Hogan Lovells的律师事务所担任高级助理。加入无聊的公司之前

And Jane Labanowski, community relations director for The Boring Co., was an undergraduate student at Harvard until 2017.

Nyree McKenzie, CEO and founder of Bidhive and director of Thought Bubble, a strategic business communications firm that works with companies bidding on major projects, said it appears Musk won the bid based on his “vision and reputation” rather than the strength of the Building Co.’s roster.

“I didn’t realize how fresh out of college these core staff here,” said Nyree McKenzie, CEO and founder of Bidhive and director of Thought Bubble, a strategic business communications firm that works with companies bidding on major projects. “The core skills and experience of the team is paramount and that should be fairly well scrutinized during the selection process.”