Musk’s Boring Co. Expands Vegas Tunnel Network

Elon Musk may have finished digging his first Loop transportation project in Las Vegas, but he hasn’t sent his tunnel-boring machine home just yet.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority released a map on Tuesday showing proposed tunnels to be built by Musk’s Boring Co. extending as far north as downtown Las Vegas and as far south as Allegiant Stadium, a distance of about 7 miles. In between, the map marks stops at hotels along the Las Vegas Strip, including Harrah’s, Caesars Palace and Luxor. 

Earlier this year, the Boring Co. completed tunnels, scheduled to open in January, under the Las Vegas Convention Center complex. The Loop will whisk passengers underground using modified Tesla vehicles. Originally, the convention center project planned to debut in time for CES, the annual consumer electronics show, but that event will now take place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. The authority paid for the convention center tunnels, mostly using proceeds from hotel taxes in the city. 

“We are very excited about the future of Loop transportation in Las Vegas,” Steve Davis, Boring Co. president, said in a statement.

Boring Co. has submitted its special-use permit application to the city of Las Vegas, which controls the northern parts of the planned route. The city’s planning commission expects to consider the application during its Nov. 10 meeting, a spokesman for the city said.

The company also is preparing a land-use application for Clark County, Nevada, which controls the southern part of the route. If the application is submitted in the next two weeks, that would allow time for the county commission to schedule the matter at its Dec. 16 meeting, a county spokesman said.

The county commission in August approved plans from two hotels, the Wynn and Resorts World, to use Loop tunnels to connect their properties to the convention center sites. Rides underneath the convention center are set to be free to visitors, but it is unclear what the charge would be elsewhere, or how those tunnels would be financed.

The map released Tuesday shows a line extending to McCarran International Airport, but no stop indicated at the airport. Airport authorities are evaluating the Loop idea, a spokesman said, including issues such as whether the airport has enough room for the tunnels and the associated crowds of people waiting to use them.

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