Elon Musk Company Finishes Tunnels for High-Speed Loop Project, Eyes Expansion

Posted on: May 17, 2020, 01:50h. 

Last updated on: May 17, 2020, 12:55h.

Steve Bittenbender Read More
Expertise: Legislation, Sports Betting, Horse Racing.

An Elon Musk-owned company reached a major milestone this week on a project at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC).

Musk Vegas Tunnel
Behind this rock wall, workers from The Boring Company were making their way through the final stretch needed to complete the tunnels necessary for a high-speed loop project at the Las Vegas Convention Center. (Image: Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority)

The Boring Company completed excavation work Thursday on the second and final tunnel for the LVCC Loop, an underground transportation system designed to shuttle convention center visitors across the campus. The literal breakthrough was captured on video and posted on social media.

Work began on the project in November, and crews finished boring the first tunnel in February.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) noted that the work on the $52.5 million project continues, even though many construction projects and manufacturing sites have been decimated and even shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic.

“No matter the barrier, Vegas doesn’t stop,” the LVCVA tweeted.

The Loop is designed to be a high-speed mass-transit system. A walk between the center’s new exhibit hall and the North/Central Hall could take as long as 15 minutes. With the Loop, it will take about a minute.

Self-driving electric vehicles made by Tesla, another Musk company, will use the tunnels to shuttle center visitors to their desired stop.

The loop is expected to open in January.

To the Strip… and Beyond?

Musk, however, doesn’t want to stop with the convention center project. The multi-billionaire entrepreneur has a much grander scale in mind for the Loop.

Boring Co will also connect Vegas hotels & airport,” Musk tweeted. “Autonomous Teslas in tunnels will provide individualized mass transit.”

Connecting the LVCC with Downtown Vegas, the Strip Resorts, and McCarran International Airport would allow Musk to showcase the speed in which his Tesla machines can move. A trip from the convention center to the Mandalay Bay Resort normally tales about 30 minutes.

Musk promises his company can make that trip in under 3 minutes.

Eventually, the vision is to connect Las Vegas and Los Angeles through a high-speed tunnel network that would allow Tesla’s vehicles to demonstrate their top speeds of 155 miles per hour.

Musk Considers HQ Move to Nevada

The Loop isn’t Musk’s only investment in Nevada. In Sparks, Tesla has a “Gigafactory,” which manufactures lithium-ion batteries, Model 3 electric motors, as well as energy storage products.

However, Musk hinted that he may look to bring even more jobs to the state, thanks to a run-in he had with health officials in California earlier this month.

Musk sought approval from Alameda County officials to proceed with making cars at the company’s plant in Fremont. When health officials there only approved a limited reopening, he went on social media and threatened to move the company’s headquarters.

“Frankly, this is the final straw,” Musk tweeted. “Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately.”

When he went ahead with a grander-scale reopening than health officials approved, he again went to social media and said if law enforcement arrested anyone in the matter, it should only be him.