Nashville Boring Tunnel

[Anonymous]

So this tunnel be for cars to drive in, not for trains? In Nashville, even dense enough than going underground makes sense?

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/30/elon-musks-boring-company-to-build-10-miles-of-tunnels-in-nashville.html

I’m a little worried that they’ll be structural issues with how they do it, since it kind of has the move fast and break things mentality that is common to this suite of companies

[Anonymous]

How many of his spacecraft have blown up?

Also, Nashville is not that big, and not that dense. Ten miles is not needed.

[Anonymous]

Why do we care?

[Anonymous]

This is a dC focused board. I could not care less about what happens in TN.

[Anonymous]

Musk's primary objective with the boring company is to head off public transit projects. "We solve congestion but you still get to drive your car everywhere", or something like that.

Does actually building the tunnel make any sense? No. The point is to throw out this high profile "solution" whenever there is the notion of a new transit project. The public discussion quickly gets redirected to the tunnel while the transit ideas are squashed by the usual Musk/Koch/Republican crowd.

[Anonymous]

Tunnels are great, but boring them has always been a overly costly issue, same as all public transportation.

If it can be done cheaply enough, then it's a wonderful way to reduce traffic congestion and not take away people's private property.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

In addition to the flooding issued mentioned in the article, the ground in Nashville is solid rock--difficult and expensive to blast through, and likely to cause damage to the land and structures above. There are other cities where this would be easier. The tunnel is narrow enough, and has few enough entrances, that it will be hard for emergency vehicles to respond if there's a crash or fire.

There's no reason they couldn't have done bus rapid transit or even light rail along I-40. Getting people between airports and city centers is not a very complicated issue or one in need of new technology.

[Anonymous]

Tunnels don't take away people's property, so it's a good idea overall in any city.

[Anonymous]

Meanwhile it’s only a 15 minute drive for $25 in an Uber. Traffic just isn’t that bad downtown compared to DC. Agree on the limestone that will make this a difficult project, plus flooding. Hardly seems worth the money. Focus on helping traffic on 24 instead.

[Anonymous]

Knew a guy who bought a Cold War era tunnel over 20 miles long. Would drive his race cars in it.

Must be nice to have that equipment, could make miles of tunnels everywhere and pop them up on your own private property to bypass all the traffic.