Las Vegas’ Convention and Visitors Authority has recommended selecting Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to build and operate a “people mover” at Las Vegas’ convention center, says Steve Hill, LVCVA’s president and CEO. If the LVCVA’s directors approve the move, the goal is to build The Boring Company’s system in time to be used for the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2021, Hill says.
The project would be relatively small, encompassing the convention center itself rather than transporting people across town or to the airport — but The Boring Company could expand the tunnel system after it’s constructed.
“I think the system is an attraction in and of itself,” Hill says. The LVCVA, which Hill heads, is a government agency that’s tasked with attracting visitors to Las Vegas.
The Boring Company won’t make specific design and construction plans until after the LVCVA directors vote on today (March 12), but the LVCVA estimates that the construction will cost U$30 million to US$55 million, according to a LVCVA press release.
The Boring Company’s proposal was “considerably cheaper” than the other options the LVCVA considered, Hill says. The Boring Company’s president, Steve Davis, says that the project could be done in a year.
The promise is, essentially, an underground highway system that allows passengers to go directly from their station to another one elsewhere in the convention center. It’s a more complicated version of the test tunnel the company unveiled in December.
The Las Vegas Convention Center, which hosts about a million visitors every year, is expanding to be about a two-mile walk from one end to the other. (The distance is shorter as the crow flies, but unfortunately, crows rarely pay to attend conferences.) The people mover is meant to make it easier for visitors to access the sprawling campus.
In December, the LVCVA issued a request for information and got nine responses, which included ideas like trams, gondolas, and monorails, in addition to The Boring Company’s submission. After that, the group requested proposals for the site and received six. A committee reviewed those six submissions, interviewed two finalists, and recommended The Boring Company, Hill says.
The Boring Company stood out because it was cheaper than the other proposals, but also less disruptive, Hill says. Because the system is below ground, it can be built without interfering with the construction on the surface.
Source: GMB / The Verge
