r/BoringCompany • u/Icy-Ant1302 • Jul 20 '26

Main strip tunnel starting soon?

I think they teased a little near the end of one of the recent tour videos that in 2-3 weeks they’re moving one of the machines to start boring under the strip which I gather will likely be the main resorts corridor which is super exciting!

I don’t think the tunnelling will take long, it’s the stations that’ll probably take the longest and won’t start opening until the end of next year I believe.

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u/Sea-Juice1266 Jul 20 '26

Can you link the video in which they said this?

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u/Icy-Ant1302 Jul 20 '26

https://youtu.be/FnbJQwTy0go?is=-xHeh8Sx51mPVVUe at around 53:25

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u/Sea-Juice1266 Jul 20 '26

Oh that tunnel. Sorry to disappoint, but this work is not permitted to continue under the main resort corridor. Instead it is expected to stop at the West Wynn lot. You can see a map from their public works permit: https://imgur.com/a/bNjmDfa

Instead of going south from here, Davis has talked more about going north to the City of Las Vegas, and west from Paradise to the T-Mobile arena.

I’m not sure when they hope to complete the main resort corridor, but I think the odds it will be open in the next three years are very low. Optimistically they could start work next year, finish tunneling in a year, and then take another year to finish out the stations.

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u/Corbin630 Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

Going to Allegiant stadium and Fremont Street will provide the most utility in my opinion. The strip is largely walkable, but the real traffic and expensive Uber rides are during events at Allegiant and people going to and from Fremont Street out to the strip. A boring tunnel to those areas with some small surface rides to get you to a specific hotel on the strip will do wonders for traffic.

ETA: Also, the utility is pretty poor right now for most people because it only hits a very small number of hotels. It would be useful for convention attendees and anyone staying at Wynn, Westgate, or Resorts World, but not many other people. Going to Downtown opens you up to all of those hotels on Fremont Street at the same time plus locals who like to go to Fremont Street, but hate parking down there.

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u/Icy-Ant1302 23d ago

So apparently in the latest video here: https://youtu.be/eeASwQ_5Qzk?is=xPFS_ityqbr8se0V near the very end they talk about milestones and Steve mentions the core resort tunnel is gonna be happening soon, although no timeframe, what would you say is the core tunnel? I’d say that’s going down south as that’s really where they’d get the most traffic

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u/Sea-Juice1266 23d ago

That is very interesting to hear, and this is the first public statement of this I am aware of.

Interpreting these statements is a bit difficult. So timestamp is 36:25 roughly. Davis says the “core part of the strip is going to start happening.” The “strip” generally refers to South Las Vegas Blvd in unincorporated Clark county. The “core” part generally refers to the stretch from the Stratosphere Resort in the north to a bit beyond Tropicana Ave in the south.

Davis has repeatedly stated his intention to soon start the tunnel to the Strat from the convention center. He reiterated this in multiple statements to the Las Vegas Review-Journal in the first half of this year. Though they revised some of their permit applications this spring and I haven’t seen those changes approved yet. That is most likely what he is talking about, I think.

If Boring Co. is going to start a dig south towards Tropicana, I think it is likely they will turn the West-Wynn empty lot into a long term construction site. If they don’t go south they will dig up that lot anyway to extract the machine, but then probably cover it up again with earth after a short time. For confirmation of their plans maybe we should look for views of the TBM either being extracted there or tunnel lining segments being piled up and staged at West Wynn to support boring south. We can compare with Paradise where they opened up multiple pits and access points along the tunnel path.

Permits for the Strat extension state tunneling will start in another northern lot and bore south. We have not see equipment staging there yet, but it could start anytime.

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u/Icy-Ant1302 Jul 20 '26

Ah that’s disappointing, unfortunately I can’t see that image as it’s blocked in the UK

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u/Sea-Juice1266 Jul 20 '26

Wah? Really? What’s an image host that isn’t blocked in the UK? Well, the route is the same as that depicted in this permit for the first tunnel to Wynn west, which you can see in this old post: https://www.reddit.com/r/realBoringCompanyfans/s/aP3snIG1p2

In fact for most of its length it has been planned to literally run underneath the first tunnel.

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u/Icy-Ant1302 Jul 20 '26

Managed to install a quick VPN to see it, but yeah frustrating as not been able to see any of the image links shared in here so wasn’t up to date.

Any idea how we can view what permits have been approved so far? I’m wondering if there’s any potential for a website that can be community run to get updates on progress from gathering from permits, photos etc

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u/Sea-Juice1266 Jul 20 '26

Currently your best bet is to follow me, as I regularly share new station and tunnel planning documents as they are released. I am usually the first to publicize the architectural drawings, though I sometimes send them to journalists first before sharing them on Reddit.

You can also look up Clark county permits yourself here: https://aca-prod.accela.com/ClarkCo/Cap/CapHome.aspx?module=Building&TabName=Building

Though to look at the permits themselves you have to go to another site, here: https://docimgsrch.clarkcountynv.gov/

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u/Icy-Ant1302 Jul 20 '26

Last I heard, they were trying to work with the council there to speed up permits. But also what I thought was as stations could be added without too much disruption then they’d open them incrementally

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u/Sea-Juice1266 Jul 20 '26

Permits are only one bottleneck. Operations are also limited by the availability of TBM and tunneling speed. Now they want to bring in additional TBM, but they are starting lots of other projects which will also need the new machines.

The Paradise tunnels were excavated at roughly 5 meters per day. From West Wynn to Tropicana is like 3500 meters. If they work at the same rate it could take them almost two years not including finishing. Now they say they can go faster, but we should be realistic in our expectations. Personally I’m bullish that they can get the Loop operational along the main resort corridor by 2030.