Last year, workers at Elon Musk’s Boring Co. inadvertently dug too close to a supporting column of the Las Vegas monorail, prompting officials to temporarily halt service.
Documents obtained by Fortune reveal that employees of Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, the Boring Company, accidentally exposed the foundations of two pillars supporting Las Vegas’ elevated monorail train last year.
This led county officials to briefly suspend service on the public transit system on at least one occasion.
The incidents affected the monorail, which links several of the most popular casinos and hotels along the Las Vegas Strip. One violation notice issued in June deemed a portion of the monorail an “unsafe structure” temporarily.
The Boring Company is currently working on creating a network of underground tunnels in Las Vegas, aiming to establish a futuristic public transportation system using autonomous electric vehicles.
The revelation of the damage to the monorail, swiftly addressed by both the Boring Company and county officials, follows previous reports by Fortune regarding unsafe working conditions at the privately-owned Boring Company.
The first incident occurred on June 15 when Boring Company workers, while working on a tunnel between the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Westgate Resort and Casino, inadvertently exposed the base of a monorail column.
This happened as they were searching for an irrigation pipe near the valet entrance to the Westgate’s casino. Clark County regulators ordered a halt to monorail operations while a third-party engineering firm assessed the structural integrity of the column. Operations resumed the following day after the exposed area was covered with a cement mixture.
A similar incident occurred a few months later on the Westgate property, exposing the base of another nearby monorail column. In total, Clark County issued three violations related to these incidents, citing the Boring Company for conducting grading work without a permit and creating potential hazards.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which owns the monorail, stated that while a concern was raised in October, there was no shutdown.
These incidents add to a series of safety concerns since the Boring Company began expanding its tunnel system in Las Vegas. The monorail, operational since 1995, is a crucial public transit system for the city, carrying millions of passengers annually along the Strip.
Despite these incidents, the Boring Company continues its expansion plans, with pending permits for additional tunnels within Las Vegas. Requests for comment from the Boring Company and related parties were not answered by the time of publication.
