Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk’s Boring Co. has been issued a permit from Washington D.C.’s Department of Transportation to start digging in the city.

This doesn’t, however, mean that a Hyperloop tunnel will be getting very far. The permit, issued in November but only noticed Friday, allows the digging to take place only on an abandoned piece of land on 53 New York Ave., close to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives building.

It may be the start of bigger things to come, part of Musk’s ambition to build an underground high-speed transportation system connecting New York to Philadelphia to Baltimore to Washington, D.C. Last year Musk tweeted that he’d been given government approval to start the project, but it turned out he’d given been informal verbal approval during a conversation with White House adviser Jared Kushner.

The Washington Post said it was true the company had been given permission to start “preparatory and excavation work,” but the District’s Department of Transportation is looking into what permits will be needed to go further under roads and public areas.

“We’re just beginning, in the mayor’s office, our conversation to get an understanding of what the general vision is for Hyperloop,” said a spokesperson for the department. “We’re open to the concept of moving people around the region more efficiently.”

When contacted, the Boring Co. said the site in the District, “if constructed, could become a station.” This would be one of many small stations across the vast system that’s intended to connect the cities.

In October, Musk was given permission by Maryland officials to dig a “10.3-mile tunnel beneath the state-owned portion of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, between the Baltimore city line and Maryland 175 in Hanover,” according to the Baltimore Sun. It’s reported that tunneling has not begun, and more permits are still needed.

The system, which would take people and cars on electric sleds from city to city connected by a series of stations, is by no means in the bag. Experts have said tunnel digging will be slow and costly and all manner of safety considerations have to be taken into account. If some people doubt Musk’s lofty ambitions, he certainly has made big ideas a reality before.

Image: Kevin Krejci via Flickr