Boring Co. eyeing Henderson, Summerlin, Reno after potential loop build out
As Boring Co. works toward building the Strip and downtown portions of its Vegas Loop project, company brass is eyeing even further expansion of the point-to-point system.
Boring Co. President Steve Davis said sometime after the company completes the planned 68 miles of loop and 104 stations around the Strip and in downtown Las Vegas, slated for some time between 2028 and 2029, moving out toward the suburbs to Henderson and Summerlin is its next desire.
Boring Co. would be willing to build a demonstration 1-mile tunnel in Henderson and Summerlin to show each locale how the loop would be beneficial. The short test loops could be used for an underground pedestrian crossing, to get the conversation about a Vegas Loop connection for vehicles going, Davis said.
Reno in sights
Looking even further into the future, Boring Co. would also like to begin offering hyperloop service north toward Reno. Hyperloop service offers much faster speeds than that of the Vegas Loop, which sees speeds consistent with surface road travel.
“I bring it (connecting to Reno) up all the time,” Davis said. “I think it would be really cool.”
Davis floated a preliminary price of around $100 for an about 440-mile hyperloop trip between Las Vegas and Reno. Hyperloop isn’t a new mode of transportation; it’s been floated for years. A test loop previously located just outside of North Las Vegas in Apex saw hyperloop testing there for multiple years by Virgin Hyperloop One. The company ceased testing operations in 2023.
No talks have been had about potentially going anywhere outside of the scope of the current Vegas Loop project, but Davis hopes that changes as the system continues to expand.
“We like it here. The state is awesome, so if the community and the state was supportive, the day the machine is fast enough — it’s not fast enough (now) — and they permit it, we would try it,” Davis said.
Vegas to Phoenix?
Representatives from Henderson and Reno didn’t respond to request for comment on the potential for adding Boring Co.’s service to their respective cities.
One goal of the ongoing Interstate 11 project is to connect the two largest cities not connected by a major interstate in Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Adding a tunnel between the two southwest desert cities would also be appealing to Davis.
Potential hurdles
In order to do intercity travel, Boring Co.’s tunneling machines would need the ability to dig faster than they do now. Davis said he spends most of his time looking at ways to improve and speed up tunneling efforts.
Another big hurdle will be permitting. Davis said the Vegas Loops’ initial 68-mile tunnel system build requires over 600 permits for the work between Clark County and the city of Las Vegas. Out of over 600 permits needed for the entire project, Boring Co. has just over 100 in hand, Davis said. So one would figure intercity tunneling would feature a slew of permitting needing to be obtained and environmental testing occurring before work could begin.
Once Boring Co.’s machines dig fast enough to go city to city, Davis said it would be relatively cheap to build a Las Vegas to Phoenix Loop.
“Let’s say it’s 500 miles at scale; we’ll be at $5 million a mile,” Davis said. “So that’s $2.5 billion, $2.5 billion to connect Vegas and Phoenix. … What does the government spend $2.5 billion on? I could raise the money to do it privately. Literally, if somebody handed me a permit for Vegas to Phoenix and by the time we would get that permit, the machine is fast enough, we could literally connect these two cities for a few billion dollars, which we could easily raise.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.
