LAS VEGAS (AP) - Workers completed the second of two underground tunnels early Thursday for a people mover connecting exhibit halls at an expanded Las Vegas Convention Center, a project spokeswoman said.
Convention and Visitors Authority official Erica Johnson said a drilling machine reached the end of the nearly 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) tunnel a little before 1 a.m.
The $52.5 million people-mover is being built by billionaire Elon Musk’s company, called The Boring Co. It is due to open in time for the CES trade show in January 2021. Organizers say the annual gadget show drew more than 175,000 attendees this year.
The underground transit system will move conventioneers in self-driving Tesla electric vehicles using parallel tunnels between three exhibit hall and parking stations. Trips will take less than two minutes.
The system is key to an ongoing $980 million convention center expansion that includes adding a three-story, 1.4 million square-foot (0.13 million square-meters) building across the street from existing exhibit halls.
Johnson said a planned renovation of the current single-story convention campus has been put on hold amid budget concerns prompted by the coronavirus pandemic.
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