Elon Musk’s The Boring Company (TBC) completed the first of two tunnels that it has been excavating for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). The tubes will support an underground transportation system (people mover) that will shuttle convention attendees throughout the 200-acre campus of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) – free of charge.
LVCVA CEO Steve Hill said:
This marks an important milestone in the future of transportation. Las Vegas is proud to lead the way as the first and only destination to offer an underground transportation solution for moving visitors throughout our convention center.
The two tunnels will form a loop that includes three passenger stations going in each direction (6 in all) connecting the existing 3.2 million square feet of convention space with the center’s new 1.4 million-square-foot West Hall, also currently under construction. The TBC project is planned for debut in January 2021 and the LVCC expansion in 2023.
The transportation system will utilize all-electric Tesla vehicles built on a Tesla Model 3 or Model X chassis that are capable of holding between 3 and 16 passengers. The system’s capacity will be 4,400 people per hour.
The people mover stations will be located at the South Hall of the LVCC – where the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held – on one end, at the West Hall on the other end, and one in the middle. The trip between the farthest two points (0.8 miles) would typically take about 15 minutes by car on surface streets. But it will take only about a minute riding the electrified vehicles underground (traveling at speeds of up to 155 mph).
The machine that excavated the tunnel has been working 40 feet underground, digging at a rate of approximately 100 feet per day. Now that it has completed the first tunnel, it will be disassembled and brought back to the starting point to begin boring the second tunnel parallel to the other. The project cost $52.5 million and was commissioned by LVCVA who has spent a total of $1.5 billion on the expansion of its facilities.
TBC has ambitious plans to continue constructing additional tunnels to other parts of Las Vegas, including McCarran Airport and beyond to Los Angeles!
