Executives at billionaire Elon Musk’s infrastructure company are reportedly in talks with Tennessee officials to construct a tunnel connecting downtown Nashville to Nashville International Airport (BNA), according to a report by The Nashville Business Journal.
The outlet, citing multiple sources, reports that discussions between The Boring Company and Tennessee officials about a tunnel – which would run between five and 10 miles long – “started months ago.”
The Boring Company, founded by Musk in 2017, creates “safe, fast-to-dig, and low-cost transportation, utility, and freight tunnels” with a mission to “solve traffic, enable rapid point-to-point transportation and transform cities,” according to its website.
Since its founding, the company has constructed a tunnel system running beneath Las Vegas connecting popular destinations together including resorts along the Strip, Harry Reid International Airport, Allegiant Stadium, the Las Vegas Convention Center, and downtown Las Vegas.
The company also built a tunnel system beneath Tesla’s Giga Texas facility in Texas.
In addition, the company is testing a “Hyperloop” project which is an “ultra-high-speed public transportation system in which passengers travel in autonomous electric pods at 600+ miles per hour.”
While BNA did not confirm knowledge on any concrete plans for a tunnel system connecting the airport to downtown Nashville, it did acknowledge in a statement to WSMV that there “have been numerous rumored and/or hypothetical discussions regarding connecting Nashville International Airport to downtown via tunnel.”
“The Airport Authority is not in possession of any feasibility studies, technical specifications, business terms, lease proposals, timelines, etc.,” BNA added.
In 2018, Nashville voters rejected a $8.9 billion transit tax referendum proposed by former Mayor Megan Barry which would have seen an underground tunnel be constructed in downtown Nashville for trains and buses. That tunnel would have cost more than $900 million.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “The Boring Company Presents” by Steve Jurvetson CC2.0
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This tunnel isn’t any better than the one proposed and rejected in 2018. No, again. By the way, where are the howls of complaint about the 30 million dollars in Metro’s latest budget for Haslam’s WNBA playhouse??
What a dumb idea.