The Boring Co.’s Vegas Loop expansion in Southern Nevada could accelerate as Clark County officials consider new regulations to streamline the tunneling process.
Clark County Commission Chairman Michael Naft said the county is working with Boring Co. on revised regulations that will speed the tunneling process. Boring Co. President Steve Davis said in January that boring a tunnel and fitting the concrete structure within the tunnel to create the Vegas Loop is the same each time, just at different locations. Davis said it made sense to pursue a process that could help expand the loop more quickly, and Naft agreed.
“I think that would be good for everybody,” Naft told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It would help our county employees out in the building department. It would help the user out. It’s just kind of good government to go through a master plan like we would with most other projects, rather than taking something in piecemeal, one at a time, which is much more laborious. You don’t get a holistic view of what’s happening. … Just looking at one piece of the project at a time is much more difficult.”
The Vegas Loop has nine operational stations, including five at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the rest at Resorts World, Encore, Fontainebleau and Westgate. The in-use portion of the system features 3.5 miles of tunnels, but the Boring Co. has 11 miles of tunnels built and is waiting to open those as stations are readied and approvals occur.
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority chief strategy officer Ed Finger said in February during a Regional Rail Transit Advisory working group meeting that Boring Co. has 15 stations under development, with some set to come online soon. At full build-out, the Vegas Loop is planned to feature 68 miles of tunnels linking 104 stations along the Strip, downtown, Reid Airport and other points of interest including Allegiant Stadium and Chinatown.
A station at 4744 Paradise Road near the Thomas & Mack Center will serve the airport until a station south of Tropicana Avenue opens this year, as will a planned Virgin Hotels Las Vegas station.
UNLV station
The Board of Regents approved a land easement last week to allow Boring Co. to tunnel underneath UNLV-owned land to build a Vegas Loop station at the Thomas & Mack.
Regents still need to approve the Boring Co.’s plan to build a station in an almost 36,000-square-foot portion of the Thomas & Mack’s parking lot near the border of the property on University Center Drive, just across the street from the Boring Co’s 4744 Paradise property.
Boring Co. will pay the university $1,000 for the land easement, which has an appraised value of nearly $1.2 million, which would give Boring Co. the ability to build a station and tunnels there while UNLV maintains its ownership of the land. Boring Co. will pay $25,000 to the university in costs tied to legal and administrative fees associated with the process.
Boring Co. will build the station at Thomas & Mack at no cost to UNLV. Boring Co. usually foots the bill for the cost associated for boring new tunnels, but property owners are normally on the hook for construction costs tied to building a station.
Documents that were part of the land easement item on Friday’s Board of Regent meeting noted the Vegas Loop would eventually link UNLVto other sites of interest tied to the university, such as the Las Vegas Medical District, where the university’s medical school is located, and Allegiant Stadium, where UNLV football plays home games.
Future expansion
Another loop offshoot is planned from the Thomas & Mack to Park MGM, and the first tunnels incorporating downtown Las Vegas received a permit from the city of Las Vegas for a tunnel from the Strat to the Las Vegas Convention Center. The next downtown tunnel will run from the Strat to the Plaza, Finger said. The Strat to Plaza tunnel would open up a connection to the Fremont Street Experience.
“We’re optimistic that in the not-too-distant future, the county commission will come and set a code that memorializes the revised set of standards that the … Boring Co. builds under, and that will accelerate and allow what are seven Boring Co. machines available in the metro area here to be underground and to prove how quickly mileage can be accumulated in the tunnel system,” Finger said during the meeting last month.
With the planned tunnels and stations planned in multiple areas of the city, those coming online would create a significant network of tunnels, Finger said.
“Generally, from Thomas & Mack, westbound to the Strip, northbound down the Strip to downtown, eastbound to the convention center on Paradise,” Finger said.
If new tunneling regulations are approved by the county, Boring Co. will be able to bore new tunnels as soon as they receive clearance from utility companies, including NV Energy and Southwest Gas, Davis said.
Chinatown loop
Boring Co. already owns land in Chinatown for a future Vegas Loop station, but a business owner in the area who runs a Chinatown website and social media page would also like a separate tunnel built to handle peak hour traffic on the usually congested Spring Mountain Road.
Joe Muscaglione, owner of ShangHai Taste, entered a Boring Co. contest that asked for interested parties to submit plans competing for 1-mile loop projects that would be built free of charge to prove the usefulness of tunnels. Muscaglione’s pitch was a 1-mile loop that would be allow select traffic to utilize the tunnel and alleviate congestion seen on Spring Mountain Road, especially during peak hours.
Chinatown didn’t make the final 16 of the contest when Boring Co. announced the list via social media platform X this month, but the community still could see a purpose-built tunnel constructed for their own use in the future.
After Muscaglione posted about the proposed 1-mile loop plan on X after Chinatown didn’t make the cut, Boring Co. responded, saying they would consider constructing the project once they reach the area with Vegas Loop.
“You didn’t need to enter — though we are glad you did,” the X post read. “As part of Vegas Loop, we already plan to tunnel to Chinatown down Spring Mountain (at our own cost). Once there, (we) will happily add additional useful spurs.”
Muscaglione, who is a self-proclaimed fan of Vegas Loop, said adding the transportation network to the area would be huge for all business owners in the Chinatown area.
“It four minutes from the Strip, but logistically it’s worlds apart,” Muscaglione said. “If there doing what they’re saying, the discussion is just starting, I think it’s going to be absolutely amazing. The tourists that come into Chinatown now is in the millions… I hope they do this. It’s going to be great.”
Commissioner Naft said he believes the project would help the area’s traffic issues and thinks Boring Co. was being sincere when they said they’re open to adding additional loop spurs in Chinatown.
I’ll give them credit; hey made that offer to me, as well,” Naft said of Boring Co. “So I think they mean it, yes.”
Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
