Elon Musk wants to build a high-speed tunnel underneath Las Vegas, and it could actually happen

Asa Mathat | D: All Things Digital

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) wants to build a tunnel underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Out of nine submitted ideas, an LVCVA committee recommended Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build the transportation system.
The tunnel could be finished in about a year, and be ready in time for the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2021.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) wants to build a tunnel underground the Las Vegas Convention Center — and it looks like Elon Musk’s Boring Company is the top contender for the job.

Steve Hill, the president and CEO of the LVCVA, officially endorsed Musk’s Boring Company in a statement to The Verge.

“I think the system is an attraction in and of itself,” Hill said.

Elon Musk, who founded The Boring Company in December 2016 after tweeting his frustration about traffic, said on Tuesday that he is “looking forward to building a Boring Company tunnel in Vegas.” In its own tweet, The Boring Company said it hopes to work with the LVCVA to “do great things for Las Vegas together.”

Twitter

The directors of the LVCVA will have to approve the move before any construction can begin — that vote will take place on March 12. The LVCVA told The Verge that it expects construction to cost anywhere from $30 million to $55 million, but noted The Boring Company’s plan was “considerably cheaper” than the alternatives presented.

According to The Verge, the LVCVA got nine applications to build transportation systems like “trams, gondolas, and monorails,” as well as The Boring Company’s tunnel idea. Of the nine suggestions, six of them turned into full-fledged proposals, and a small committee from the LVCVA interviewed two finalists from those six, and landed on The Boring Company on March 8.

Hill said the goal would be to have The Boring Company’s tunnel open in time for the Consumer Electronics Show in 2021, which typically takes place during the first week of January.

In terms of what the actual transportation system will look like, Hill told The Verge that the plan is to build a high-speed rail system underground, which can transport modified Tesla cars or even electric trams that can hold 16 people, but it’s not clear what the final vehicles will be. The goal is to connect various areas of the two-mile long Las Vegas Convention Center, but we don’t know how many stations there would be.

Steve Davis, president of The Boring Company, told The Verge that there might be further opportunities to expand the tunnel in Las Vegas if the initial tunnel under the Convention Center is a success, like connecting the tunnel to McCarran International Airport, or the Las Vegas strip.

Check out The Verge for more information on The Boring Company’s plans in Las Vegas.

NOW WATCH: Nintendo Switch is the fastest-selling console of the current generation — here’s why Nintendo is dominating video games