The Boring Company and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced a 10-mile underground “loop” linking Nashville’s downtown, convention center, and airport.
The project will be privately funded by The Boring Company and unnamed private partners. Officials will start a public process to map routes, get community input, and finalize the initial phase.
Construction won’t begin until approvals clear. The first segment could open as soon as fall 2026. 
If it hits that timeline, Nashville becomes the second city with a Boring Company loop after Las Vegas. The Vegas system has logged 3 million Tesla rides around the convention center.
Musk started The Boring Company in 2017 after teasing tunnel ideas on Twitter. Plans for massive tunnels in Los Angeles, Chicago, and a hyperloop from NYC to DC never materialized amid pushback and shifting priorities.
The hyperloop idea has been dropped. Tesla vehicles in Vegas loops are human-driven, not self-driving as Musk once hinted.
The current focus looks more like a convention center people-mover. It promises less traffic disruption in Nashville and claims no taxpayer money is involved.
The governor’s office touts a 99.57% safety rating from DHS and TSA for the Vegas loop but didn’t mention past construction troubles.
The Boring Company’s fast work pace has raised safety concerns among employees. Last year, a safety manager told Fortune the working conditions were “almost unbearable.” One worker said he refused to be “the first fatality” on the job.
“I have watched my friends get injured due to the fast pace we’ve been running… I refuse to be the first fatality in this company’s history. No tunnel is worth a single person’s life.”
“The conditions they were told to work in were honestly almost unbearable … I couldn’t fix any of the things that were wrong.”
The Boring Company and Tennessee officials declined further comment. Construction timelines and community feedback will shape the next steps.
