Quay Valley, California
In March 2015, Dirk Ahlborn, the CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) in El Segundo, California announced a plan to build a hyperloop test system at the Quay Valley site. Ahlborn indicated that construction could begin in 2016 to be completed in 2017 with the first rides to begin in 2018 if his company can raise $100 million in funding. The company has said that this track will be a fully working and operational creation of the hyperloop, but that running speed will be reduced on the shortened track from Hyperloop's full potential. It is not decided whether a 5-mile loop or straight section will be constructed, and it may cross the Interstate bisecting the site. Ahlborn said that speeds up to may be possible. Quay Hays expects to break ground on the new community in 2016, including a working version of the Hyperloop, estimated to cost $100–150 million.
Elizabeth River Tunnels Project
In 2006, the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) (formerly a subcommittee of the HRPDC, now known as the Transportation Planning Organization) concluded that new tolls could help secure funding for transportation projects that were removed from the 2026 RTP, including the Midtown Tunnel and MLK Extension. This would include tolling the parallel Downtown Tunnel to create a congestion-management plan to prevent the diversion of potential Midtown Tunnel traffic to a competing free facility. Both tunnels were initially tolled (25 cents, both ways) to pay off their construction bonds; both were made free in the late 1980s after the opening of the second (eastbound) Downtown Tunnel. Options included adding a 58-cent toll to the Midtown Tunnel (and a 19-cent toll to the MLK Extension), which could raise $427 million for the project; or adding a $2.05 peak/$1.50 off-peak toll for the Midtown, and a $2.20 peak/$1.60 off-peak for the Downtown Tunnel, which could raise nearly $4.8 billion. Based on this study, the MPO added the projects to the regions 2030 RTP, now estimated to cost around $779 million— if the Virginia General Assembly approved the new tolls and several tax increases.