A modified Tesla Model
Robin Beck | Pool | Reuters
When Elon Musk’s Boring Company announced plans in July to build a 20-mile tunnel in Nashville to carry passengers from downtown to the airport; tesla Republican Gov. Bill Lee touted the project as “transformative.”
Eight months on, residents’ enthusiasm appears to be waning.
A new poll from Nashville’s Vanderbilt University found that 51% of residents who knew about Musk’s involvement opposed the so-called Music City Loop project.
“Public support for Elon Musk’s tunnel plan is heavily influenced by partisanship,” Vanderbilt said on its website about the poll. Local opposition to the construction rose from 35% to 51% “when Musk’s name was explicitly mentioned in the question.”
Musk became a prominent and controversial figure in politics in 2024. It spent about $300 million to put Donald Trump back in the White House and then worked to reduce the size of the federal government and cut major programs early in the president’s second term in the White House.
The Boring Company did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Metro Nashville City Council members voted to formally oppose the Music City Loop. But the state’s Republican leadership gave Musk’s company permission to dig under state highways throughout the city.
Tennessee is currently considering legislation that would give the state the power to collect tolls from such projects and direct federal transportation grants to priority projects in the state. If passed in its current draft, the bill could also give the state and project operators the power to regulate underground transportation systems, leaving municipalities like Nashville with little recourse to deal with fires and other emergencies, workplace safety and pollution concerns.
Nashville City Council members and residents opposed to the Music City Loop expressed concerns about The Boring Company’s track record during public hearings.
As ProPublica previously reported, citing public records, when Musk’s tunneling company built the Loop at the Las Vegas Convention Center, it racked up an “unusual number of violations” for issues ranging from failed inspections, unauthorized construction, water contamination and worker injuries.
Supporters of The Boring Company at the hearing praised the Music City Loop’s potential to create construction jobs in the city and hoped the tunnel would ease traffic congestion in Nashville.
The Boring Company announced this week that it is targeting more U.S. cities for tunnel development, including Baltimore, Dallas and New Orleans. The company is running its business development effort as a contest called the Tunnel Vision Challenge, promising a “free” one-mile tunnel to the winner. The Baltimore Ravens, who participated in and won the challenge, turned down Musk’s offer after the first meeting with the company.
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