By Ray Smith, Exhibit City News
It’s wildly popular to bash Las Vegas with its flaunted reputation for gambling, boozing and adult debauchery. The media, particularly national media, have taken shots at Sin City for decades, screaming about overdevelopment, corrupt officials and underhanded policies.
The latest volley was launched by ProPublica, a nonprofit journalism organization that published an article with the headline: Elon Musk’s Boring Company Is Tunneling Beneath Las Vegas With Little Oversight.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) collaborated with Boring Co. in 2019 to build the Vegas Loop, an underground transportation system using Tesla electric cars to move people around the enormous convention center campus and outlying hotels.
“It’s nearly a half-hour walk from one end of the campus to the other,” says Steve Hill, president and chief executive officer of LVCVA. “Some people can’t make that walk. Others don’t want to.”
Hill took exception to the ProPublica article at the Jan. 14 board of directors meeting, using his time during staff presentations to debunk several points that he says were at times “inaccurate” and “misleading.”
The article claims the $50 million project that started with a one-mile underground tunnel connecting Las Vegas Convention Center’s South, Central and West halls is lacking governmental oversight, which Hill rebuts as soundly incorrect.
Yes, Clark County agreed with Boring Co. to remove an ordinance outlining permit requirements to construct, install and operate Amusement and Transportation Systems, Hill explains. That’s the sort of regulatory obstacle that killed Boring’s projects in other cities.
However, the county retains total oversight over construction of the Loop, and Boring Co. is subject to all fire and safety codes, law enforcement powers, structural plans and third-party audits, Hill says.
“The county has all the authority it needs to not let this project go through, if it so chooses,” the CEO asserts. “We have a couple systems that have been ready to open for several months.”
LESS REGULATION
The ProPublica article notes that Musk has repeatedly railed against regulation that “often stymies innovation, a view that now has added significance given his new role advising President-elect Donald Trump on government efficiency.”
“Despite its size, the (Vegas Loop) project, because it’s privately funded, has not gone through the vetting typical of public transit systems, including lengthy governmental studies,” the report contends.
That’s absolutely wrong, Hill counters. He detailed Requests for Proposal, or RFPs, from eight companies covering an entire spectrum of mass transportation possibilities, analyzed in a 2,300-page report from the Regional Transportation Commission.
Options such as a subway system would cost $750 million a mile; a light-rail system in Phoenix cost $250 million a mile. An elevated roadway was estimated at $150 million, probably too low because of an 18-foot elevation slope from the West Hall, Hill says.
“Resorts have been having this conversation for decades,” he adds. “We looked at a monorail. Since the days of Perry Thomas, they’ve looked at a monorail on the Strip. The capacity at Boring is substantially higher than the alternatives, multiples higher. It’s the only realistic solution to congestion in the Strip corridor.”
Since the completion of the LVCC segment of the Vegas Loop, the system has expanded to Resorts World, and tunnels to Encore and Westgate hotels are finished and awaiting approval. Clark County approved extensions of the Loop to Reid International Airport, downtown Las Vegas and Allegiant Stadium.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
The Vegas Loop, free to ride at the convention center and for a nominal fee to Resorts World, has transported more than 3 million passengers since its opening and has been rated 4.9 out of 5 in a customer satisfaction survey, the tourism chief mentions. “It’s had nothing more than a fender bender along the way.”
ProPublica delved into past violations by Boring Co. that resulted in $112,000 in fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Environmental regulators documented the company dumping untreated water into storm drains and the sewer system.
“And, as local politicians were approving an extension of the system, Boring workers were filing complaints with the state Occupational Safety and Health Administration about ‘ankle-deep’ water in the tunnels, muck spills and severe chemical burns,” the article states.
Hill defends the Boring Co. as not having “skirted” environmental regulations, as stated in the ProPublica article, adding that the company has never been exempted from any federal laws.
“I think we all feel responsible for advancing economic growth,” he says. “No public money is going into this project, and that is fundamentally what makes it so attractive.”
Las Vegas has evolved with technological innovation since its founding in 1905, “reinventing” itself, as the media reports it, from a railroad and mining town to a world-class resort destination. The Loop is proving to be a game-changer, not just for the convention center, but for the future of mass transportation.
