LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Parking and driving around the resort corridor can be a challenge, but the Westgate Resort's new Vegas Loop station hopes to make that a lot easier, as county leaders hope the underground tunnel system built by Elon Musk's Boring Company continues to revolutionize transportation in the valley.
Carlos Licona from Florida is visiting Las Vegas for the World of Concrete Convention, and was amazed by the Vegas Loop, and hopes to see it expand.
"Very comfortable, secure, very fast," Licona said after his ride. "Certainly, with some of the congestion you see in some of the big cities, that would be fantastic."
That's the long-term goal in Las Vegas, according to Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson.
"The plan is for many, many, many miles of tunneling to be done," Gibson said. "As those tunnels are completed, we're hoping we can add each station much more rapidly than this one."
"Once this system is fully built, it'll be easy for all of our visitors to move through the resort corridor in a fun and very quick way," Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) CEO Steve Hill said.
Hill says they've moved more than 3 million people through the Convention Center's Vegas Loop since it came online in 2021, with new stations added at Resorts World in 2022 and Wednesday at the Westgate.
"Our vision at the LVCVA is to be a category of one, and this system embodies that," Hill said. "It's the only system like it in the world."
But the Loop–and all its tunneling underneath Las Vegas–hasn't come without a few controversies.
Recently, concerns have circulated about how much oversight Clark County has over the project, but Hill and Gibson insist the county's oversight is "complete."
"They have the ability–if they think this is unsafe or not in the interest of the public–to not allow it to open, or if it's open and operating incorrectly, to close it down," Hill said.
"We are involved in the approval process in a way that enables serious consideration for public safety," Gibson said. "This is a very safe system in our view."
Gibson says he sees the underground system as integral to reducing road congestion in the resort corridor and beyond.
"We're excited to see expansion toward the airport, over to Las Vegas Blvd., then up and down the boulevard," Gibson said. "All of that is what we approved and is why we're doing this."
So, what's next for the Loop?
Hill said Wednesday they have machines in the ground working from the Thomas & Mack Center up Paradise Rd., and they're getting ready to open up a second tunnel from the Convention Center's Bronze Parking Lot over to the Wynn and Encore Resorts, but didn't give an exact timeline for either to be operational.
For more information on the Vegas Loop, visit the LVCVA's website by clicking here.
