The Boring Company Completes 1st Tunnel For Las Vegas Loop Project
The Boring Company has completed the first of two tunnels it is building for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
This tunnel will connect the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is held, with the new 1.4 million square foot West Hall located in another part of its 200 acre campus. The trip by car on surface streets would normally take about 15 minutes. Elon Musk says that time will be slashed to around 1 minute using electrified vehicles that can travel at speeds of up to 155 mph underground.
The capacity of the new transportation system will be 4,400 people per hour.
Excavation is complete for the first of two tunnels that will comprise Elon Musk’s innovative underground transportation system beneath the LVCC campus. The project is scheduled to debut in January 2021. pic.twitter.com/CwpxEWDXYc
— Vegas Means Business (@LVCVA) February 14, 2020
The boring machine that created the tunnel has been working 40 feet underground since last November. It will now be disassembled and returned to the starting point to begin boring a second tunnel parallel to the first. When completed, both tunnels will be about 0.8 miles long. The system will have three stations, one at each end and one along the way. If all goes according to plan, about a year from now the system will be open for business. The total project cost is $52.5 million, according to the LVCVA, which in total is spending $1.5 billion on the expansion of its facilities.
“This marks an important milestone in the future of transportation,” says LVCVA CEO Steve Hill. “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 vehicles operating inside the tunnels will be built on a Tesla Model 3 or Model X chassis and will be capable of carrying up to 16 passengers according to The Boring Company and CNET. Assuming the system works as promised, there are plans to construct additional tunnels to other parts of the city, including McCarran Airport.
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