Go just below the surface of Las Vegas and you’ll find this.
It’s a tunnel that quickly transports people beneath
the city - and its traffic jams - in soon-to-be automated Teslas.
The idea came from Elon Musk and what’s been constructed looks
very different to what was originally proposed.
Though the system currently just serves the Convention Center,
a city-wide network is planned and other locations across the US are being lined up.
Its critics call it a glorified bypass, nothing more than a car in a tunnel,
while it’s supporters herald the dawn of a new transportation system.
So, will we travel on Loops around our cities in the future?
Well, this is why it’s still a bit of a gamble.
In June 2021 the USD $50M Las Vegas Convention Center Loop will open.
It’s a 2.7-kilometre circuit tunnel that allows delegates to jump from one end of the 200-acre
campus to the other in the comfort of a shiny new Tesla - complete with funky disco lighting.
The system has three stations in total - two on the surface at each end of the site and an
underground station in the middle. What used to be a 25-minute walk is now a two-minute car ride.
The Loop was supposed to be ready in time for the massive CES show in January but
the physical event was cancelled due to Covid and it’ll now debut at the less well-known but
far more exciting World of Concrete conference - which this year has a truly solid agenda.
Owned and operated by the equally exciting Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority,
the Loop is the first commercial project to be completed by The
Boring Company - that’s the tunnelling business that’s owned by Elon Musk.
It was Musk that originally tweeted the idea when he got caught in traffic in 2016.
Within months The Boring Company was digging a test trench at the
headquarters of another Musk firm, SpaceX, in California.
And just a few years after that, in 2020, the company was using its own
specialised tunnel boring machine to carry out what is an unusually narrow excavation.
Because the tunnel only has to be big enough for a Tesla, and there’s no need for things
like utilities or additional piping, a machine with a diameter of just 4.3 metres was used.
Most tunnel boring machines are normally around 17 metres in diameter.
Having a more compact machine made it easier to tackle geological and structural obstacles.
It could work quickly and the firm claimed to be
clearing over 40 metres of ground a day at one point.
In total, the tunnel went from sign-off by the Convention Center to completion in 18 months.
Of course, longer tunnels would need some kind of emergency access or service routes
and critics have argued that a larger tunnel able to accommodate a train or bus - basically
a subway system - might have been a more effective way of transporting more people. If
you’re claustrophobic then this current narrow tunnel with few exits is probably not for you.
With this Loop opening there are now plans to extend the system across the city.
The Las Vegas Council voted unanimously in favour of the scheme,
but environmental checks now have to be completed before it can go ahead.
A wider Vegas Loop would see the system branch out from the existing tunnel
and connect with resorts along the Strip, other landmarks across downtown,
the new Allegiant Stadium and eventually the airport.
That’s around ten miles of new tunnels, which would give the city its first
underground infrastructure system and a vital alternative to regular road travel.
Before the pandemic, more people were flocking to Vegas than ever before,
with a record 50 million travelling through the airport in 2019.
The city does have a monorail, but it’s a single line and it misses lots of the big attractions.
Most people therefore end up taking buses or resort to walking.
But that doesn’t always go with the glitzy and extravagant experience some want from Vegas
and an air-conditioned Tesla, away from all the traffic, could be much more appealing.
It’s thought that fares will be around $10 for a five-mile ride,
but this could of course change as things develop.
As for the financing of the actual project,
the cost of the main tunnels will be covered by The Boring Company,
while casinos and hotels will pay for the stations and tunnels that connect to their property.
It’s a project that looks like it could happen and be beneficial for Vegas, and there are plans
in place for other US cities too, although it is fair to say they’re less advanced.
A Loop to transport fans to and from LA’s Dodger Stadium was announced in 2018 and a more ambitious
route that would run between Washington DC and Baltimore was unveiled a year before.
But little has happened with either idea,
and it seems both have now stalled at the environmental review stage.
A Loop from O’Hare International Airport to downtown Chicago also never took off,
while details are yet to emerge about another possible tunnel in Austin,
Texas - the location for Tesla’s next US Gigafactory.
There’s also questions about whether Loop systems
would actually work outside of a city like Las Vegas.
Most major cities already have some form of city-wide transit network, whether it’s a
subway or an effective overground rail system. So
digging Loops would either be more difficult due to existing tunnels or infrastructure - or not
really necessary, with people already able to get around the city relatively quickly.
There’s probably more chance of it happening in a US city as they tend
to be more car-centric - but many other countries are likely to look at this and not really get it.
The Loop was originally conceived as a way to escape traffic - but would a system like
this really be free of congestion itself if built in the middle of a busy urban centre?
Would it have to eventually be priced at a level to control passenger numbers,
creating a somewhat elite mode of travel?
When the Loop was first announced, we were shown glossy CGI where cars would
take elevators down to the tunnel level and then be whisked off on autonomous sleds at 120mph.
In this inaugural tunnel there’s no elevator, speed is limited to just 35mph and the cars are
still human-controlled, although the intention is for them to become autonomous in the near future.
It’s a long way from the ultimate vision that first excited so many
people - and some feel that Musk may have created more detractors
than supporters with what’s now been built and unveiled under the Convention Center.
Strip away the funky lights and critics say you’re kind of left with a one-way concrete underpass.
So, could these tunnels be coming to a city near you?
In Las Vegas, the funding is there, the authorities are on board and there’s no
existing infrastructure in the way. Plus people are pretty likely use it
and it’s filling a genuine need for a new transport solution.
But will the same reasoning apply in all cities? Well... no.
Other places are likely to already have something that does a similar job
and most authorities aren’t as open to new ideas as they are in Nevada - and
they don’t have mega casinos or hotels to help spread the cost.
It’s still early days, those other systems remain a possibility, and you should never
knock an entrepreneur who’s trying something that hasn’t been done before. But when it comes to
the Loop it’ll probably turn out to be another case of what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
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