Trespassing has become an issue for Elon Musk’s Boring Company, which built and operates the subterranean road network in Las Vegas known as the Loop. Ethan Miller—Getty Images
Elon Musk-through his Boring Company-has built a system of tunnels under the city of Las Vegas called the Vegas Loop, within which only Tesla Model X and Y cars travel. These one-way underground tunnels allow users to travel to their destination without intermediate stops, shortening the time compared to a traditional subway. When completed, the project will consist of 109 kilometers of tunnels with more than 100 stations-including some along the Strip, the famous casino street. At present, only a small section has been built, the one needed to connect the city's Convention Center with its campus (called the LVCC Loop), and of the 8 stops currently operating, only 3 are outside the campus: Resorts World, Westgate and Encore.
As anticipated, the Vegas Loop is a system of one-way tunnels within which only Tesla vehicles driven by drivers are allowed to circulate. This solves traffic and intermediate stop problems. In terms of passengers, the LVCC Loop -- costing the company about $50 million -- can carry up to 4,400 passengers per hour, while the full Vegas Loop is likely to reach 90,000 passengers per hour.
This work currently saves visitors quite a bit of time: if it takes about 25 minutes to walk between West Hall and Central Hall, that time is shortened to about 2 minutes with this system. As for costs, the system is free if you travel within the campus while if you want to get off at other stations you need to buy a ticket ranging from $4.00 for a single ride to $12.50 for daily.
This tunnel system was built using a TBM called Godot, which is a massive machine on top of which is mounted a rotating head 4.3 meters in diameter. This is a much smaller size than is normally used to dig tunnels, precisely because cars with a standard size known in advance only have to circulate inside it.
Of course, there has been no shortage of criticism. In fact, according to some, it would have made more sense to make a larger tunnel so that vehicles such as buses or vans could also pass through. The problem of claustrophobia should also be highlighted: the presence of tunnels little larger than the car and without many escape routes could make people experience a sense of oppression.
