70°F
weather icon Windy

Digging underway on next Boring Company Vegas loop station

The next offshoot of the Boring Company’s Convention Center Loop is underway.

Crews are digging the tunnel between the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Westgate. The tunnel will surface at the convention center’s Riviera Station, located near the northwest corner of the facility’s parking lot near the west hall.

Tunneling on the Westgate portion is slated to wrap up next month, and operations are expected to begin this summer, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

The Westgate station will mark the second loop offshoot from the convention center, following the link to Resorts World that opened last year. The Convention Center Loop transports conventiongoers between three exhibit halls on the 0.8-mile dual tunnel system.

Plans are to eventually extend the underground loop system up and down the Strip to downtown Las Vegas. There are 69 planned stations for the Vegas Loop, including at the majority of resorts along the Strip, Allegiant Stadium, UNLV and eventually Harry Reid International Airport.

The Vegas Loop will be built in phases on different portions of the Strip and downtown, with each eventually being linked to form a 29-mile system consisting of dual tunnels transporting passengers in Tesla model vehicles.

Planning with the city of Las Vegas on the initial tunnel from the Strat to the Fremont Street Experience area is underway, according to Steve Hill, president and CEO of the LVCVA.

“Once that gets done we’ll look to loop that all the way around (downtown) and bring it back (to the Strat),” Hill said.

Work also continues on bringing the Tropicana phase of the Vegas Loop to fruition.That phase includes stations at Allegiant Stadium, Mandalay Bay, Tropicana and an offshoot to UNLV.

The Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education this month approved moving ahead with selling a little over an acre of land in the Thomas &Mack parking lot to the Boring Company. The price of that land acquisition will be determined later this year.

“Which is a great launching point for a number of reasons,” Hill said. “It’s an end point for when there’s something going on at Thomas &Mack and UNLV. It’s also an awful lot of parking (for the stadium) and an easy way for students — once it runs down Tropicana and connects with the link to the stadium — to allow UNLV students to attend games at Allegiant. It’s a really important part of the loop system.”

Hill noted that when he says they are working on the Vegas Loop system that is mainly engineering, designing and permitting and not actual digging.

“Right now, for the most part all of those have land use permits, but they need building permits,” Hill said. “So we’re working with the building department. … with the city and the county to get building permits so they can actually get started.”

When digging for any of the tunnel portions outside of the convention center will begin is still unknown.

When asked when the digging might commence, Hill commented: “Soon.”

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.

THE LATEST