Musk predicts Las Vegas tunnel to be completed in 2020, ahead of schedule

LAS VEGAS (UPI) — Entrepreneur Elon Musk said he believes the Las Vegas tunneling system his Boring Company is creating under the city’s convention center could be done by next year, possibly months ahead of schedule.

Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, made the prediction on Twitter. The $48.7 million project will transport visitors to and from the massive Las Vegas Convention Center along three spots to the Las Vegas Strip, turning a 15-minute walk into a one-minute trip.

“Boring Co is completing its first commercial tunnel in Vegas, going from Convention Center to Strip, then will work on other projects,” Musk said on Twitter. When asked when it would be completed, he tweeted, “Hopefully fully operational in 2020.”

An earlier announcement had the convention center tunnel being completed by January 2021.

Steve Hill, president of the chief executive of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said this weekend that The Boring Company’s two-mile tunnel under the convention center is scratching the surface of a possible tunnel system that could span the entire Las Vegas Strip from Fremont Street to McCarren International Airport.

“We do think that over time, this just doesn’t have to be just a convention center or just a [Las Vegas[ Strip type of transportation system,” Hill said. “This can be a system that everybody in the valley can take advantage of.”

A map on The Boring Company’s websites shows a future tunnel system that would have stops at virtually every major Las Vegas casino and hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, taking visitors from the airport through the city.

“We also see it as a real opportunity to solve some of the congestion problems in Las Vegas going forward,” Hill said. “So it is helpful to start at the convention center, make sure that it works, work the kinks out and then look at the opportunity of moving into the city.”

Musk said his tunnel projects won’t replace other forms of transportation.

“These would be road tunnels for zero emissions vehicles only – no toxic fumes is the key,” Musk tweeted. Really, just an underground road, but limited to EVs (from all auto companies). This is not in place of other solutions, eg light rail, but supplemental to them.

Last December, Musk unveiled an “entirely new system of transport” with a demonstration of a 1.14-mile test tunnel intended to ease Los Angeles traffic.

Reporting by Clyde Hughes