The company has started excavation work on a route that uses state roads, circumventing local authorities and review processes.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on October 27, 2025 to clarify that the project did not request or receive approval from the city by using state-owned streets along its route.
Elon Musk’s Boring Company has begun work on an underground tunnel in Nashville that would connect downtown to the airport, skirting city approval, reports Marianna Bacallao for NPR.
According to Bacallao, Nashville is one of the two cities (next to Las Vegas) where a Boring Company project has been approved — in this case, by the state. “Cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., never moved forward on proposed tunnels, mostly because those cities pushed for environmental reviews. Tennessee's governor says the tunnel is a free solution to the city's traffic woes.”
The project, which is privately funded, is designed to carefully trace an arc of state roads, circumventing local authority. But state lawmakers representing Nashville say “the development will only serve tourists, and locals stand to lose if the project fails but won't see any of the benefits if it succeeds.”
The company was fined $100,000 by OSHA over flooding in its Las Vegas tunnel, a concern that could be amplified in Nashville, which receives 10 times the amount of rainfall that Las Vegas does.
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