The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has recommended that The Boring Company be chosen to construct a "people mover" below the expanding convention center.
The Las Vegas Convention Center is one of the largest and most popular event spaces in the world, with more than a million people passing through every year. Its flagship exhibition is the Consumer Electronics Show, which brings in roughly 150,000 visitors every January. The massive space is about to get even bigger, with a $1.4 billion renovation and expansion about to get underway. The plan is for a new underground tunnel to be operating in time for CES 2021, according to the LVCVA.
For Musk's Boring Company, the Las Vegas plan is easier and significantly smaller in scale compared to its projects in D.C., Chicago, and Los Angeles. The proposal calls for a way to move convention attendants quickly as the space expands to become a nearly two-mile walk from end to end. It would also leave room for potential further expansion.
The LVCVA chose Boring because its proposal came in with a far cheaper price tag than other proposed options above-ground. Musk has said the purpose of The Boring Company is to make the notoriously costly and time-consuming process of tunnel-boring cheaper and faster by making the tunnels themselves smaller, and by speeding up the TBM ー the massive earth-moving machines that are needed to bore under cities. The Las Vegas tunnel would cost between $35 and $55 million, according to the company. It can also be constructed more quickly because there are few landowners to contend with.
So far, The Boring Company's main success has been a two-mile-long test tunnel near Los Angeles International Airport, which it built at a cost of $10 million per mile.
The final recommendation for the Vegas project will be made on March 12.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
