The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) recently announced that excavation is complete in the first of two vehicular tunnels that will comprise The Boring Company’s (TBC) d/b/a Vegas Loop underground transportation system, located beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center campus. After tunnelling 12 metres underground for nearly 1.6 kilometres over the past three months, the boring machine has just broken through the concrete wall located near the West Hall convention centre expansion, which is currently under construction, signalling the official completion of excavation for the first of two one-way tunnels.
The Convention Center Loop was designed to serve as an innovative, fun and quick transportation solution to move thousands of convention attendees throughout the more than 80-hectare campus, with the potential for expansion to ease congestion throughout the Las Vegas resort corridor.
Next, the machine will be disassembled, transported via trucks and lowered back into the launch pit near the Convention Center’s South Hall, where it will begin boring a parallel path adjacent to the first tunnel. The first commercial endeavour for the new tunnelling company is designed to transport up to 4,400 convention attendees per hour and is scheduled to debut to the public in January 2021.
“This marks an important milestone in the future of transportation,” said Steve Hill, LVCVA CEO and president. “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 USD$52.5 million underground transportation system will include three passenger stations connecting the existing 297,290 square-metre of convention space with the convention centre’s new West Hall, part of a USD$1.52 billion expansion and renovation. The system will allow convention attendees to be whisked across the sprawling campus in just over one minute, free of charge, in all-electric Tesla vehicles.
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