Boring Company wins approval of $48M Las Vegas loop contract
Loop of underground tunnels will ferry passengers around new convention center.
An artist's rendering of what the cars used in the Boring Company's Las Vegas loop tunnels might look like.
Elon Musk's Boring Company is heading to Vegas.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority on Wednesday approved a $48.6 million contract for Boring to build and operate a loop of underground tunnels that would carry people in autonomous electric vehicles at the city's convention center. The total cost of the project is expected to be $52.5 million.
The underground transit system will whisk passengers in electric vehicles from one end of the convention center to the other -- less than 1 mile.
The Boring Company said it's excited to work with leaders "who have a vision for transportation," while the LVCVA said the city will "continue to elevate the experience of our visitors with innovation, such as with this project, and by focusing on the current and future needs of our guests."
The LVCVA recommended in March that Boring Company be chosen to construct the tunnels as the convention center goes through an expansion, which will make it span 200 acres in 2021, just in time for CES. The project will potentially connect downtown Las Vegas, the convention center, the Las Vegas Boulevard Resort Corridor, McCarran International Airport and more.
The contract calls for the system to be running by 2021, but Musk tweeted in March that he'll make the tunnel "operational by end of year," even though the convention center's expansion won't be done until 2021.
Looking forward to building a Boring Company tunnel in Vegas. Assuming to be operational by end of year! https://t.co/cSSO4SJ140
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2019
The Boring Company is all about high-speed underground tubes. Two years ago, Musk said he was going to build a tunneling machine to take transport subterranean. Then, in December, Musk officially opened the first Boring Company test tunnel under SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. Musk wants to build a tunnel from the western neighborhoods to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and a 35-mile line of twin tunnels from Washington, DC, to Baltimore.
The Boring Company has also landed a contract with the Chicago Infrastructure Trust to build the express loop system to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
Originally published May 22.
Update, May 23, 1:20 p.m. PT: Added Boring and LVCVA comments.
