January 31,2016-
The race to build the first Hyperloop prototype system in California is on and rural Kings County,not Silicon Valley or Los Angeles may be where it all happens.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) has filed for a permit to construct and test a Hyperloop system along Hwy 5 in Kings County. The project would be built on land owned by Grow Holdings in the southwest corner of the county, south of Kettleman City.
Grow Holdings has proposed the “new town” of Quay Valley on the land long term.
The applicant indicates in their December filing that they hope to begin construction in the third quarter of 2016. First the firm seeks approval from the Board of Supervisors to qualify as a research project and obtain a conditional use permit. Just how extensive the environmental review will be is yet to be decided, says a Kings County planner.
The schedule calls for testing on the system to be complete in 2018 and open to the public in 2019.
The cost to build could run as high as $170 million.
The plan calls for construction of a 4.8 mile full prototype of a Hyperloop system,powered by solar,a climate controlled passenger capsule that travels inside a a tube at hundreds of miles per hour.
Proponents envision a low cost transportation system that will”have the potential to change the way we live and work.”The tube would run adjacent Hwy 5, some 20 ft above the ground accessed by a visitor center and an Education and Outreach Center.
Commercial Hyperloop systems could eventually provide intercity passenger and cargo transport linking regions says the application.
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Meanwhile a competitor, Elon Musk’s Space X had an announcement this week as well. The nearly one-mile-long test track will be built adjacent to SpaceX’s Hawthorne, California, headquarters.