The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s project to build underground highways to ease traffic congestion, received approval Wednesday to expand its “Vegas Loop,” an underground tunnel system beneath Las Vegas that transports passengers via Tesla vehicles. .
The expansionapproved by the commissioners of Clark County, Nevada, will expand the network by 25 miles, allowing for 18 new stations that extend the tunnel network from the Las Vegas Strip corridor.
TechCrunch recently reported on the proposed expansionthat would increase the underground transportation system to 65 miles of tunnels under Sin City designed to help people reach more casinos, shopping areas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas campus and residential areas.
The system was originally planned to feature 29 miles of tunnels with 51 stations. The current footprint of the Vegas Loop is approximately 2.2 miles and includes five stops, including four around the Las Vegas Convention Center and Resorts World. Westgate and Encore are currently under construction. The company said it just passed one million passengers in total and the peak in one day was more than 32,000 passengers.
The commission approved the updated plan in a 6-1 vote after TBC attorney Stephanie Allen confirmed that the company, not the taxpayer, would fully fund the project. Last year, TBC grossed $675 million to scale Loop projects like this.
Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick was the only one to vote against it, citing concerns that the long-term transit system plan does not account for resort and casino employees who have to commute to the city for work.
“I hope there are long-term conversations about what that looks like so that we can make sure that people can access it; not just tourists,” Kirkpatrick said. “Because we have the same number of workers that have to make this trip and it’s getting harder and harder for them to get there. I’ve been getting a lot of calls from my district about how long it takes to get there due to construction.”
Allen responded by saying that TBC had plans to expand into residential areas to the north, west, and east of the strip.
Kirkpatrick also expressed concern about the amount of infrastructure being built around the airport and wanted to make sure that TBC was working with the approval of the Federal Aviation Commission.
Some of the newly planned stations will be located on Las Vegas Boulevard near the airport, as well as in Chinatown, at UNLV, Town Square Las Vegas and Harmon Square. A sample trip between the airport and the Las Vegas Convention Center, a 4.9-mile trip, could take five minutes and cost $10, according to Allen.
Around the same time that TBC last raised funds, Musk tweeted that the company would still try to use the tunnels for largely theoretical purposes. hyperloop technology, the idea that a transportation system could carry passengers and cargo in pods through low-pressure tubes at speeds of over 600 miles per hour. Although the company said it would start Hyperloop tests at “full scale” As of the past year, there has been no indication that TBC has moved forward with this technology, nor will it be implemented in the Vegas Loop.
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