Elon Musk’s Tunnel Company Has Been Cited for ‘Serious’ Safety Violations
Unsafe conditions at one of Elon Musk’s work sites are coming to light.
The billionaire’s Boring Company has been cited for worker safety issues in Nevada, as reported by Bloomberg Businessweek. Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined the company more than $112,000 last fall over eight “serious” safety violations in its Las Vegas tunnels, according to state records Bloomberg obtained via a freedom of information request. The Boring Company is contesting the citations, stating that the “Nevada OSHA has failed to establish that the alleged violations occurred.”
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Revealed in 2022, the “Vegas Loop” sits beneath the Strip and will eventually span 68 miles to connect different parts of Sin City. The report details the dismal conditions at a dig site for a tunnel between the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Encore and the Westgate hotels.
Boring Company workers, who declined to give their names, said they had to wade through a chemical sludge that would sometimes be up to two feet high. They said if it splashed onto their skin, it would burn. The muck was reportedly filled with the typical construction byproducts of sand, silt, and water, but also accelerants used to set the grout in the tunnels. Workers at the Encore dig site told Nevada’s OSHA that burns became almost routine and caused permanent scars. At least one employee took a direct hit to the face, according to the investigation. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, one worker described the feeling of exposure to the chemicals: “You’d be like, ‘Why am I on fire?’”
The report also details some questionable construction practices. Last summer, an intern was nearly crushed when a bin made of two-ton concrete blocks collapsed. The employees said it had been overloaded with muck, which caused the metal brackets holding it to give way. Workers also said that temperatures in the tunnels can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Boring Company has raised $800 million in outside capital for the venture, with its most recent valuation reaching $6 billion. Progress on the tunnels has been slow, though. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman isn’t convinced the project will ever come to fruition, in fact. “It’s impractical,” she told Bloomberg. “I pray it works but I see these stumbling blocks.”
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