The Boring Co., founded by Elon Musk, has begun work on an underground tunnel in Nashville.
Boring’s “Music City Loop” would function like a rideshare. Passengers will ride in individual Tesla cars on a fixed route connecting downtown Nashville to the city’s airport, with possible expansions in the future.
State officials have touted the project as a solution to the city’s traffic woes. Others worry about the tunnel’s possible impact on the environment and Nashville’s existing infrastructure.
Here’s everything we know about the project so far.
Function
Currently, the 8-mile journey from the airport to the Music City Convention Center can take anywhere from 12 to 30 minutes during peak traffic times. The Boring Co. estimates the same ride could take as little as 8 minutes with its fleet of underground Teslas.
There are plans for three stops along the Music City Loop: the Nashville International Airport (BNA), the Music City Convention Center and the Tennessee State Capitol.
Despite talks with several other cities, The Boring Co. only has one other tunnel in operation. The Vegas Loop initially boasted 155 mph rides in self-driving Teslas when it was first announced. Since then, Boring has switched to driver-operated cars for the 2-mile tunnel that currently circles the Vegas strip.
With congestion, Vegas Loop riders have observed a top speed of 40 mph. Nashville’s tunnel will need Tesla drivers to maintain an average speed of 67 mph to deliver on the promise of an 8-minute trip.
In its pitch to Nashville, Boring has been less ambitious about the length and speed of its tunnel rides. Construction, on the other hand, will have a much faster timetable in Music City.
Timeline
The Boring Company expects a quick turnaround on the project, estimating that Nashville’s tunnel will be operational by late 2026. In comparison, it took the company nearly three years to complete a tunnel a tenth of that length in Las Vegas. Other tunnel pitches never got that far. Cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale and Washington D.C. never moved forward on proposed tunnels.
The project is still officially in the planning stages, and The Boring Co. has said that drilling won’t start until the last quarter of the year. However, excavation is already underway at a downtown parking lot.
Government transparency
Fences went up around the state-owned lot before lawmakers officially approved the deal with Boring, a move state officials say is common in construction projects like these.
Members of the State Building Commission, none of whom represent Nashville, voted unanimously to give The Boring Co. a no-cost lease for the tunnel’s starting point. The agreement with the state dictates that Boring has to leave the lot in the same condition or better. If not, the company could be on the hook for the cost of repairing it.
The greenlight came soon after the project was unveiled to the public. Days prior, Gov. Bill Lee and other state Republicans announced the deal, touting that the tunnel would come at no cost to the taxpayer.
“It’s 100% privately funded. There will be no cost to Tennessee taxpayers,” Lee said. “For those that live here, it means that there’ll be less congestion on our roads. There will be less wear and tear on our highways.”
State lawmakers from Nashville disagree. The city’s statehouse delegation has argued that the development will only serve tourists at the expense of locals.
Many, like Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, have criticized the lack of input from both city and state officials who represent Nashville.
“You’re treating us like we’re a colony where you get to dictate to our constituents what is in their best interest. You keep their representation out of meetings,” Jones said. “You don’t even consider the impact to the health and safety of our community.”
State records do not show that there were any environmental reviews of the project — something that has served as a death knell for tunnel proposals in other cities.
Environmental concerns
During the unveiling, Boring CEO Steve Davis said that the tunnel will be a more difficult undertaking in Nashville.
“Tough place to tunnel,” Davis said. “If we were optimizing for easiest places to tunnel, it would not be here.”
A WPLN deep dive into Nashville’s limestone found that drilling in the area comes with a high risk of sinkholes. The ground between downtown and the airport contains calcarenite, a type of limestone particularly vulnerable during tunnel work.
Potential runoff from the project could disrupt the local water system and cause flooding — something that has been a problem for the current Vegas Loop. OSHA fined the company more than $112,000 after workers complained of flooding in the tunnel and chemical burns. Boring has contested the violations.
An investigation by ProPublica and City Cast Las Vegas found that Boring had dumped untreated groundwater into the local sewer system during construction.
In Nashville, the tunnel’s path could also endanger a federally protected species of crayfish which calls Mill Creek home.
“They understand fully that permitting, environmental permitting … is a part of the process,” Gov. Bill Lee told WPLN News when asked about a potential environmental review. “They’ve shown that they have a great desire to follow the process as laid out by the state to work with our agencies.”
It wouldn’t be the first of Elon Musk’s ventures in Tennessee to draw criticism for its environmental impacts. His artificial intelligence facility, xAI, in Memphis is currently the subject of a lawsuit over concerns that its turbines have been polluting the air of a predominantly Black neighborhood without a permit.
City response
Local officials have had little input on the plan, likely by design. The tunnel’s path traces a careful arc of state roads, allowing The Boring Co. to circumvent local approval altogether.
While some Metro Councilmembers have been outspoken in their opposition to the project, Mayor Freddie O’Connell has remained focused on transit aboveground. When asked about the tunnel, O’Connell has mainly talked about it in connection with the rollout of a voter-approved transit referendum. The Choose How You Move initiative, one of the biggest focuses of O’Connell’s administration, is more concerned with better sidewalks and faster busses.
“We absolutely want to make sure that if something is happening below the surface, it doesn’t disrupt anything we are doing on the surface,” O’Connell said.
The mayor still has questions, though. In a letter to Boring, the mayor’s office asked about safety concerns and how the company plans to handle emergency responses.
The letter pointed to the Vegas loop, which has a deal with the city’s fire department to allow vehicles that fit inside the tunnel to respond to emergencies. Boring has said it “works closely with local fire and police departments,” but so far, there has been no deal with Nashville’s fire department.
Existing sewer tunnels downtown could also be impacted by drilling in the area.
O’Connell’s office is still awaiting answers, like many Nashville residents. During public comment for the State Building Commission, several lifelong Nashvillians came out against the project.
“Why don’t we have transportation for all instead of just a select few rich people?” resident D.J Carter asked. “This is not for the regular citizens. It’s not going to help our neighbors.”
“How will we be impacted?” asked Caitlin Porter, a Nashville native. “What will they say if we say no to selling portions of our land or coming into our backyards? What if we said no to easements?”
The Boring Co. has not yet responded to the mayor’s office, but on its website, has said that construction will not be disruptive.
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