Vegas Loop expansion could include Allegiant Stadium, downtown

The Boring Company is expected to ramp up its Vegas Loop expansion following the opening of multiple offshoots from the Las Vegas Convention Center to neighboring resorts.

With tunnels open at Resorts World, Westgate and Encore, new tunnels and stations around the resort corridor and downtown are likely to come online more quickly than the initial offshoots, according to Steve Hill, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority president and CEO.

The Vegas Loop began operating between the various exhibit halls at the convention center in 2021, followed by the Resorts World connection opening in June 2022, the Westgate station this past January and the Encore station last month. The point-to-point system uses Tesla model vehicles to transport passengers between various stations.

Regulations figured out

One of the main holdups in getting the latest stations opened had to do with fire safety, Hill said. Boring Co., the LVCVA and Clark County officials have worked to come up with the best path forward to allow for further expansion, while keeping safety top of mind, Hill indicated.

“It’s new. It’s taken a little time to figure out what the standard should be,” Hill said during last week’s LVCVA board of directors meeting. “We’ve gotten there. We’re excited about that. We’re ready to expand further, faster, than we have.”

The new Encore tunnel opened to passengers last month, with Hill calling it the system’s best tunnel to date.

“The Boring Company is learning as they move along, and they’ve learned quickly,” Hill said. “But this is the best ride, the best experience, and it’ll only get better from here.”

The ride between the convention center and Encore takes just under one minute, Hill noted.

“As you can see it’s a quick trip to Wynn, Encore and all of the properties that are now connected and will be connected,” he said.

Bigger plans

Aside from being touted as the transportation option of the future for Las Vegas, the loop also serves as an attraction in itself, Hill said. Full build-out will include 104 stations and 68 miles of tunnel.

“It’s such a great attraction for shows that are looking at this building (convention center) and we’re going to be connected to everybody in town,” he said. “It’s a real difference-maker.”

The company last month submitted building permit applications for tunnel extensions from Encore to a Wynn-owned land parcel across Las Vegas Boulevard and from that parcel to Caesars Palace.

County records show the combined contract valuation of those tunnel extensions to be $600,000.

Plans are also in the works for a Tropicana Loop that would extend from near UNLV west up Tropicana Avenue and connect to the MGM Grand, T-Mobile Arena, Allegiant Stadium, Mandalay Bay and the Athletics’ ballpark, to be built at the site of the former Tropicana hotel.

“Those are all in process,” Hill said. “We’ve got machines that are available to be put in the ground. I think we’ve reached a framework for how these projects are going to work and how they’ll be permitted from a safety standpoint, as well as a building standpoint. It’s taken some time to get to that because it’s new, but we think we’re there.”

Permitting is in the process for multiple downtown locations from the convention center’s footprint. Those plans include going to the Strat, then to Fremont Street Experience and over to Circa’s Garage Mahal, which Hill called “an important link.”

“There’s a number of directions that the loop system is intended to go and which one that gets ready first, I’m not really sure,” Hill said.

Encore tunnel

Boring Co. still needs to dig the second tunnel to Encore, with the offshoot currently operating in alternating one-way-only cycles. The second Encore tunnel won’t be dug with one of Boring Company’s boring machines; it will be done manually.

“Not pick and shovel, but there’s no place to recover the boring machine, so that process will be different,” Hill said. “There are some connections like that, that will happen along the way, this is one of the larger runs that will have to be done that way.”

University Center Loop

Tunneling of the next line that will be open is underway underneath Paradise Road. Boring Co. began operations on the University Center Loop last year, from a future station on a parcel located between Paradise Road and University Center, located across from UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.

Multiple stations are planned along the way including Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, a potential multifamily housing unit that Boring Co. is looking to construct, the site of the former Gordon Biersch restaurant and brewery and Firefly which would in part serve Sphere. The line ends at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

It is expected that the first tunnel of the University Center Loop will reach the convention center within the next two months and then continue to link to the Westgate tunnel, Hill said.

Boring fleet

Boring Co. has six boring machines that are available to dig at a given time, with three already in the ground in Las Vegas. The company will also continue to develop new machines, with Boring Co. last week touting a new autonomous digging version.

With the Vegas Loop basically the same tunnel located in different locations, the process is becoming more streamlined as it is expanded.

“This is how it is, how oversight of both the construction and operations process is going to happen. As long as you’re doing the same thing, you can just keep moving,” Hill said.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X. Send questions and comments to roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.