Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, was frustrated with traffic in his hometown of Los Angeles and decided to do something about it. In 2016, he founded a tunneling start-up called The Boring Company.
The Boring Company has recently received approval by Clark County commissioners to expand its underground transportation network underneath Las Vegas. Now, the Loop network will include a new station at the Resorts World near the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), where the Loop is scheduled to open later this year.
Scott Sibella, president of Resorts World Las Vegas, said:
We are thrilled to receive approval from the County Commission to move forward with our proposed passenger station and tunnel and are eager to take the next steps in creating an innovative transportation solution for our convention guests and visitors.
In 2019, Musk shared designs of the first commercial Loop station, revealing parking inlets for the Tesla Model 3 electric cars that will carry passengers on the mile-long drive from one end of the convention center to the other.
According to Musk, the underground networks will not interfere with existing transportation infrastructure. The new tunnel also reduces the cost and time of current tunnel-digging technologies by a factor of 10.
The Boring Company’s website wrote:
To solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic, roads must go 3D. A large network of tunnels many levels deep would help alleviate congestion in any city. No matter how large a city grows, more levels can always be added.
Eventually, the LVCC Loop could extend to the McCarran International Airport, transporting passengers at speeds of 155mph under the Las Vegas Strip. Traveling time from one end of the strip to the other during peak hours could be reduced from 30 minutes to only 3 minutes.
The company’s LA headquarters have already dug and tested a prototype tunnel. In 2018, a demonstration transported a Tesla through a mile-long tunnel that cost $10 million to construct. Considering that most current underground projects cost between $100 million and $1 billion per mile, the prototype tunnel is significantly cheaper.
The Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority revealed earlier this year that the Loop beneath the LVCC is being built at the cost of $52.5 million. The construction is going very fast, as it’s being completed at a rate of 100ft per day. Once the Loop is completed, it will have the capacity to transport 4,400 passengers each hour.
