Las Vegas approves Elon Musk's underground tunnel plan

[brooklynite]

Intelligent Transport

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) Board of Directors have made a monumental decision regarding Southern Nevada’s transportation, approving Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to design, construct and operate a people mover via a loop of underground express-route tunnels that could carry passengers in autonomous electric vehicles at high speeds.

The innovative project has the potential to connect Downtown, the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Las Vegas Boulevard Resort Corridor, McCarran International Airport and beyond.

“Las Vegas has maintained its reputation as a leading travel destination because we are driven by innovation and hospitality,” said LVCVA CEO and President, Steve Hill. “This project is an example of how our leading principles can create an experience benefitting our community and valued visitors.”

The Boring Company and the LVCVA will determine specific design, construction and operational plans and negotiate a contract for final approval by the LVCVA Board in a subsequent meeting anticipated for June 2019.

Musk has been pitching this concept around the country (including NYC)

[LongtimeAZDem]

1. And now we have the plot for "Ocean's 14"

[Mr. Sparkle]

2. If this technology works as expected, the cost of tunneling will come way down

opening up lots more future possibilities, not least a hyper-loop which encases a train travelling at 700 mph through a vacuum sealed tunnel. Congrats to Las Vegas on been brave and adventurous, more cities should follow their lead.

[MineralMan]

3. Well, that drawing just shows the Convention Center

area. Where is Downtown, the Strip, and the Airport? I mean, the convention center is important, but I've been to many things there, and such an underground transport system isn't really needed.

[brooklynite]

4. This project is specific to the Convention Center...

...which in the expansion plan will be 2 miles (a 40 minute walk) end to end.

[MineralMan]

5. There are many other options that could

provide fast transport on that campus.

The article was all agog, though, about a Vegas-wide system, which isn't even depicted in a sketch.

One of the problems with getting support from the big casino owners is that they don't really want their customers to be able to get easily to different places. They want you to stay right where you are and spend your money at their property. So, getting them on board with some project like this might not be popular with those owners.

I don't see it as needed for the Convention Center campus, either.

[pecosbob]

7. Operative concept is that they're designed to discourage you from going anywhere else

They've made very sure that getting to other properties or other parts of the city require a good walk of a half-mile or more. Even the elevated monorail made to serve the strip is a pain to use.

[MineralMan]

8. Yes, exactly.

On the strip, it looks like other places aren't all that far away, due to their huge scale. Then, you start walking and you figure it out. The monorail thing sucks really, and doesn't get used enough to really justify itself. Using the city bus system is also a huge PITA, and cabs don't like going from one casino to another. Not one bit.

And all of that is just how the casino owners like it. Why leave our beautiful pleasure palace? We have everything you could possibly want right here? And that's just what most people do.

Vegas is a trip. I love it and hate it at the same time. After a long string of trips to COMDEX and CES every year, I've stayed in all the major properties, and a few minor ones. I even stayed one time in a Motel 6, early in my career. I learned that Vegas hated those big trade shows. The casinos were empty, and show-goers filled up all the rooms. There were parties all night, every night, held in the big rooms of those properties, but the casinos were empty. The cab drivers complained about poor tipping and short trips.

As a media person, I never even had to pay for a single meal while I was there. Someone always had a feed on for the Press, so even the restaurants couldn't get filled up. Other attendees had other places to go that were also free.

Big conventions and trade shows in Vegas are big money-losers for the casinos.

[pecosbob]

10. The only way it makes any sense to me is strictly for convention center traffic

with a mandatory direct link to McCarran Airport (this is the really important part that they'll undoubtedly ignore or forget). Even then it would benefit, what, maybe a half-dozen corporations that own exhibition space and their vendors? I used to hump and lump audio video gear to all the convention spaces in town and so worked for one of those vendors. MGM Resorts Intl owns basically all the convention space at the south end of the strip and Sheldon Adelson owns all the convention space close to the LVCVB spaces (the Sands).

[MineralMan]

12. It's an awfully expensive way to move people from one

convention center space to another. A dedicated tramway would work just as well and be way, way cheaper. Transport to and from the airport to the strip is the real crucial need, as far as I can see. The cabbies will hate that, since those fares are the money-makers for them. Also, where does this transport go to and from the airport. The strip covers a lot of space, and each property is a major destination on its own. Probably the best plan would be to have the airport transit go behind the resort/casino properties, but I don't know how much that's all changed since I was there last.

A central transit hub on the strip might work, but only if the various properties operated their own shuttle services to and from the transit hub, preferable on dedicated routes that didn't have to contend with strip traffic. The problem is that the development on the strip has been so chaotic and unplanned for such amenities that it may well be almost impossible to come up with an efficient, workable system.

I've always like being in Vegas, but I've also hated the hassle of getting around in Vegas. But, that's how the casino/resort owners like it, and they won't be in any hurry to change that. Rope people and then keep them onsite. That's how money gets made. It's a wonderful getaway city, but a horrible place to explore as a tourist. Too hot during the summer to walk anywhere. Too far between places of interest. It's a weird, weird city, I think.

[pecosbob]

6. We have an elevated monorail that runs the length of the Strip and virtually no one uses it...

I'm neither for nor against the current project, only know that the LVCVB will pass some boondoggly things that no one here really wants. They've been talking high speed rail from LA to LV since I moved here twenty years ago and as far as I can see it would only benefit the hotels and casinos.

Also to note is the fact that the geology of this alluvial valley is one of multiple layers of water-bearing strata that all lead to the lower end of the valley and Lake Mead. There have been a number of below ground projects that have suffered serious setbacks due to the unexpected presence of groundwater. One would hope that they would do their due diligence...

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

15. Monsoon season

The monsoon rains still sometimes overwhelm all the fancy flood control projects that have been built in the last twenty years. I definitely would not want to be in that underground transit tunnel when the monsoon hits!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. There are a lot of holes in the desert...

[demmiblue]

13. Shai-Hulud get around. n/t

[Gidney N Cloyd]

16. So does Nicky Santoro. :-)

[Brother Buzz]

17. But you gotta do it right.

I mean, you gotta have the hole already dug before you show up with a package in the trunk. Otherwise, you're talking about a half-hour to forty-five minutes worth of digging. And who knows who's gonna come along in that time Pretty soon, you gotta dig a few more holes. You could be there all f***in' night.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

18. +1

[Brother Buzz]

11. Is this $35 million to $55 million estimate a realistic figure?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

14. make it an underground roller coaster

Have both ends at the same elevation, nudge the car over the edge, let gravity take it to the destination. Only have to add a little power to make sure it doesn't stop just before the end.