How Elon Musk’s 68-Mile Las Vegas Tunnel Skips Every Stop With Zero Dig Crew

“IN AUGUST: The Boring Company’s Prufrock boring machine achieved autonomous six-segment concrete ring installation in under sixty seconds with zero crew inside the tunnel, controlled remotely from Texas, as the Las Vegas Loop passed four million riders across fourteen active stations toward an approved sixty-eight-mile, one-hundred-twenty-three-station network. Because Loop stations sit on side bays as small as two surface parking spots off the main twelve-foot tube, Teslas bypass intermediate stops at up to sixty miles per hour and cut a fifteen-minute resort drive to fifty-five seconds. I think launching off a trailer and placing six-piece concrete rings with zero crew underground removes the surface pits and tunnel labor that make urban subways so expensive. With twin 2.3-mile Airport Connector tunnels dug and twenty-eight active stations targeted next, Las Vegas is becoming the largest testbed for point-to-point underground transit. I follow stories and companies like this as part of my work at Drake Foundry. Subscribe if you are interested in innovation. Sources: The Boring Company, deepspacefiles5, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Transportation Security Administration”