Music City Loop tunnel starts with bevy of questions
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Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios; Photo: Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Unlike recent major civic projects in Nashville, the Boring Company's Music City Loop did not foster a public conversation before it was announced.
- In fact, many elected officials representing the parts of town the tunnel would burrow under didn't even know about the project before a press conference at the airport Hilton last week.
Flashback: The Music City Center convention hall was the subject of advocacy and intense public debate for years before the $623 million facility was approved.
- The Nashville Predators discussed the possibility of expanding and renovating Bridgestone Arena for the better part of a decade before detailing their plans earlier this year.
- The city's transportation funding plan approved by voters last year was the subject of many community meetings before early voting began.
Why it matters: Crews could begin digging the Music City Loop at a state parking lot downtown before fundamental questions about the 10-mile tunnel are answered.
State of play: The loop will primarily ride beneath Murfreesboro Pike, a state-owned road, to connect downtown to the airport.
- Everyone from Metro Council members to state lawmakers have expressed skepticisms.
Based on conversations with stakeholders, here are the top questions about the project now that the dust has settled on the exuberant announcement:
Feasibility
Does the famously hard limestone surface on which Nashville is built make a 30-foot underground tunnel impossible to affordably construct?
- "Tough place to tunnel in Nashville," Boring Company CEO Steve Davis said, unprompted, at the announcement event. "If we were optimizing for easiest places to tunnel, it would not be here. You have extremely hard rock, like way harder than it should be."
- Davis followed up by saying, "It's an engineering problem that's fairly straightforward to solve."
- There are other fundamental questions about the project's engineering, such as whether the roads above need to be shut down during digging and how nearby residents and businesses will be impacted.
Financing
Gov. Bill Lee touts the project as privately financed, but there's been no explanation of the cost or how the long-term financing works.
- In Las Vegas, the Boring Company makes money from fares paid by people using its loop system.
- A Boring Company executive told the crowd at a Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce event this week the company plans to invest a couple hundred million dollars.
Legality
How will the state contract, apparently with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, work?
- How will such an unprecedented tunnel project be regulated? Road projects submit engineering reports, environmental studies and financing plans.
- Where will displaced groundwater go, and how does such a tunnel impact runoff?
Metro involvement
By utilizing a state road, the Boring Company and Republican state leaders cut out Metro from the primary approvals necessary to make the ambitious project come to fruition.
- But, Metro agencies could still come into play. First responders will need access to the tunnel in case of medical emergencies, criminal incidents or fires. Metro utilities, such as water, stormwater and Nashville Electric Service, would logically also be impacted.
- Will Metro Council require city departments to disclose interactions with the Boring Company? Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell has claimed the middle lane, saying he has questions about the plan without offering support or opposition.
- Metro Councilmember Delishia Porterfield, who chairs the budget and finance committee, tells Axios she's interested in inviting the Boring Company to council for an informational meeting.
Future expansion
After the Nashville Business Journal broke the story that the tunnel project was on the horizon, it came to light that businesses and civic groups across Nashville had been briefed about the Boring Company's intentions.
- Some were even shown maps, which included not just a tunnel to the airport, but also down other state-owned roads like West End, Charlotte Pike and Broadway.
Will this even work?
Pick your favorite U.S. city, and it's highly possible the Boring Company has been linked to tunnel projects there.
- While the firm has made progress on tunnels in Las Vegas, where one loop is already open and more are in the pipeline, projects in other cities never came to fruition.
- Here's a non-exhaustive list: Chicago, San Antonio, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Charlotte, Fort Lauderdale.
- Davis says Nashville checks two boxes: The tunnel would be useful, and the community has been welcoming.
Addressing congestion
Nashville voters supported the Choose How You Move plan last year in part because they were sick of congestion.
- There are already skeptics around claims by Lee and others that the tunnel would help with traffic.
What he's saying: Metro Councilmember Sean Parker, who chairs the council's transportation committee, tells Axios, "BNA is Middle Tennessee's connection to the world. We need robust local and regional transit service to get our people to and from the airport as well.
- "This tunnel would not achieve that and we will keep working to deliver real solutions to Middle Tennessee."
The bottom line: There are stakeholders intrigued by the tunnel project who believe it could be a good thing for our city, but also have earnest questions about how this thing will actually work.
- While the convention hall and other projects produced robust debate, Music City Loop's starting point is a state of mystery.