Elon Musk’s Boring Company has announced plans to dig tunnels under Nashville, creating a loop that will connect the city’s downtown with the Nashville International Airport. The Boring Company says it will begin construction “immediately” following approval and expects the first 10-mile phase to be operational as early as next year, as reported earlier by TechCrunch.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee says the Nashville tunnels will come at “zero cost” to taxpayers, and will instead be “entirely privately funded” by The Boring Company and its partners. Once completed, the “Tesla in tunnels” system will ferry people from the airport to downtown in around eight minutes.
Nashville Democratic Representative Justin Jones said he was “denied entry” to an event announcing The Boring Company’s new project, even though other Republicans were allowed to attend, according to local news outlet WKRN. “This project, which requires state approval, is yet another attempt by Bill Lee and his corporate donors to enrich themselves while neglecting public services and real infrastructure needs,” Rep. Jones said in a statement on Instagram.
Questions remain about whether this latest loop will actually come to fruition. As pointed out by TechCrunch, The Boring Company has floated and quietly dropped many of its tunnel-digging plans in the past, including in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, and others. At the same time, workers at The Boring Company face many safety concerns, with one employee saying they have “consistently flirted with death,” according to a 2024 report by Fortune.
Update, July 30th: Added information about Rep. Justin Jones.
