Digging for the Music City Loop, a project of Elon Musk's Boring Company, underway on a state-owned parking lot near the Capitol. The project proposes a tunnel between Nashville International Airport and various Nashville locations for Tesla electric vehicles. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Gov. Bill Lee confirmed the state will not require the Boring Company to pay for land it uses to build a series of tunnels under Nashville to the airport and other destinations.
Lee said recently final negotiations for the state’s inspection process for Boring haven’t been finalized, but he doesn’t expect the company to be required to pay for use of state property to construct tunnels. A business dubbed the “Music City Loop” is planning to use electric vehicles to ferry riders from downtown Nashville to a series of stations and the airport.
“The Boring Company’s going to do this at no cost to the state,” Lee said. “The state will give right of way for them at no cost to the Boring Company because of the enormous investment they’re making on the state’s behalf.”
The company hasn’t given an estimated cost for the project or said how much riders will be charged to use the electric vehicles.
Previously, state Sen. Becky Massey said the state would provide the right of way to Boring under state roads for tunnel construction through a long-term lease. Routes haven’t been finalized, and it’s unclear whether tunnels would go only under state routes or Metro Nashville streets as well.
The company started digging a test hole in a state-owned parking lot near the Capitol this week. Boring Company President Steve Davis previously projected the tunnel could be put into use within two years.
Facing myriad questions from skeptics of the project, as well as Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office, Lee defended the proposal to reporters in a press conference, saying the Boring Company has a “history of tunnels,” mainly a Las Vegas “loop” where the company has moved 3 million passengers safely.
But the Las Vegas project has failed to live up to the projections made by Boring Company officials in 2019, when Las Vegas officials approved the project. Intended to stretch for more than 68 miles, the tunnel only runs 2.2 miles under the convention center and the company took one year to dig 1.7 miles. According to the Nevada Current, construction at that rate could take 40 years to complete the entire loop.
Reports also show the company built tunnels without permits, dumped untreated water into storm drains and sewers and was fined $112,000 over workers’ complaints about severe burns and muck spills. Boring is contesting the violations.
O’Connell’s office submitted about 70 questions to the Boring Company, and Lee said he believes it is answering them. The questions deal with everything from emergency responses in the proposed tunnel to maintenance, ownership and safety standards.
Lee called Boring “a highly sophisticated company” that will be required to meet safety standards to ensure the tunnel is structurally sound for transportation.
“It’s incredibly important that we do it right,” Lee said. “But it’s also an incredible opportunity for our state to have a modern, state-of-the-art transit system that will move millions of people in our city and particularly in our state, entirely at no cost to the taxpayers.”
Tennessee Democratic leaders have criticized Lee for giving the right of way to the Boring Company for a private enterprise. The company is owned by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person.
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