Elon’s Vegas Loop Finishes Digging to Wynn, Westgate Casino Resorts

Posted on: July 13, 2023, 09:33h. 

Last updated on: July 14, 2023, 08:14h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas.

Digging to expand the Vegas Loop underground people-mover has reached the Wynn and Westgate resorts. The system, built and operated by Elon Musk’s Boring Co., uses Tesla vehicles to transport people through underground tunnels.

The Boring Company
The Boring Co.’s boring machine, called Prufrock-2, emerges this week from the tunnel it dug from the Las Vegas Convention Center to Wynn Las Vegas. (Image courtesy Wynn Resorts)

Wynn Resorts says it expects its Vegas Loop station to open in March 2024 near the existing Encore valet entrance. According to the company, it will enable passengers to reach the Las Vegas Convention Center in one minute, once they are able to enter a Tesla.

The Vegas Loop plans at least 73 stations spanning 65 miles of Tesla tunnels underneath the Las Vegas Strip and immediately outlying areas.

Wynn reported that upon surfacing at the resort — 10 weeks after it began a 2,325-foot tunnel linking Wynn to the convention center — the Boring Company’s Prufrock-2 tunnel boring machine was retrieved without the use of a crane. This marks a first for a Boring commercial project, Wynn said, and mitigated the repairs to its golf course that a crane would have necessitated. No time table was announced for the Westgate station’s opening. 

The Vegas Loop initially cost about $50 million from a hotel tax, but Boring Co. now pays for the tunneling, while casinos pay for their own stations.

Tunnel Vision

Currently, the only functioning part of the Vegas Loop is three tunnels spanning 1.7 miles under the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC). That’s along with a single tunnel to Resorts World that opened in July 2022. That tunnel was completed five months earlier in February 2022.

In May, Clark County commissioners approved plans for 18 additional stations and another 25 miles of tunnels.

The Vegas Loop is expected to be completed in 2027. This includes future expansions to several resorts, points of interest, and Harry Reid International Airport, as well as to residential areas north, west, and east of the Strip.