This article is part of a three-part cover package on the Music City Loop. Read the rest here.
A mix of leaders gathered at the Nashville International Airport in July of last year for a press conference, where The Boring Company made its formal announcement introducing the Music City Loop tunnel project. Those in attendance included Gov. Bill Lee, Metro Nashville Airport Authority CEO Doug Kreulen, officials with The Boring Company, local business and hospitality professionals, and even U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
But largely absent from that press conference were key Metro leaders, including Mayor Freddie O’Connell. When state Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) tried to enter the event, he was denied entry, being told it was a private event requiring an RSVP.
For many state Democrats and local officials, this was the first sign that there would be issues with transparency and communication surrounding the project.
“I just knew it was already gonna be a contentious fight,” state Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) tells the Scene. She says she first found out about the press conference several hours before it was set to begin and heard the official announcement through the news.
At-Large Metro Councilmember Delishia Porterfield tells the Scene she also first got word about the announcement of the Music City Loop via news reports.
“Because we were only hearing about it from the media, we were very limited in the information that we had,” Porterfield says. “It was very frustrating to learn about a project that’s going to be in your city and the city that you govern and not having the appropriate information to be able to share with residents.”
In the eight months since the project was announced, many state Democrats and Metro leaders have made it clear that they oppose the project, citing a host of concerns related to public safety, the environment, accessibility and impacts on the city’s infrastructure. Some councilmembers have also referenced The Boring Company’s track record of ghosting cities and backing out of proposed tunnel projects.
Sen. Charlane Oliver, Councilmember Delishia Porterfield sponsor resolutions against Boring tunnel project
Oliver and Porterfield hosted a town hall event in March outlining many of these worries and taking a firm stance against the project. The next day, the Metro Council passed a symbolic resolution opposing the tunnel. Oliver sponsored a resolution at the state level expressing opposition to the project, but it failed in committee due to lack of Republican support.
In February, The Boring Company met with councilmembers during a public Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting where company reps were grilled on a range of topics, including the tunnel’s impact on traffic and roads, water quality and emergency response measures. Following that meeting, many councilmembers felt their questions remained unanswered and that the responses they did get were vague.
The mayor’s office first had conversations with The Boring Company about the potential for a tunnel in spring 2024, though they distanced themselves from the project following voters’ approval of Mayor O’Connell’s Choose How You Move transit referendum that fall. The referendum’s 2-to-1 passage coincided with the reelection of President Donald Trump, who quickly made Elon Musk, owner of The Boring Company, a close political ally.
In September 2025, the mayor’s office sent The Boring Company a list of nearly 80 questions about the Music City Loop, to which The Boring Company responded with an 18-page document only partially answering the inquiries.
Despite local pushback, The Boring Company has plowed forward with the project. Having secured an agreement with the Metro Nashville Airport Authority, and with the current tunnel route set to run underneath state-owned roads, The Boring Company has been able to essentially skirt the need for permits or approvals from Metro. Now state Republicans — who view the project as an economic driver for the state — are working to further cement their control over the project.
Newly amended legislation would create two state-run governmental entities overseeing Boring Company project
State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) is sponsoring the “Subterranean Transportation Infrastructure Coordination Act,” legislation that would create two state-run governmental entities wielding most of the oversight over the Music City Loop. This would include the Governor’s Infrastructure Coordination Council, to be composed of commissioners from state departments. The bill would also create the Subterranean Transportation Infrastructure Coordination Authority, which would be made up of members appointed by the governor and speakers of the House and Senate. The authority would be responsible for resolving disputes and hearing appeals that may arise when it comes to constructing the project, and would hold the power to condemn publicly owned land.
Oliver and Porterfield see the bill as another form of overreach by the state legislature, which has made previous attempts at targeting Nashville’s local government — including legislation to cut the size of the Metro Council in half. (That case is currently looming in the Tennessee Supreme Court.)
“It just feels like they’re trying to paint a picture with watercolors,” Oliver says. “You know, when you paint with watercolors, it bleeds outside the lines just a little bit, right? And that’s the imagery that I get with this tunnel. They are not going to color a perfect line … in the way that realistically won’t touch any local property, private property. It just does not seem realistic.”
O’Connell told reporters on March 18 that he has concerns in regard to the pending state legislation.
“I’ll say for our part, anything that would disrupt our ability to have certainty about public utility infrastructure, in particular sometimes things that are related to surface transportation, those are all the things we’re going to be looking at,” O’Connell said.
Some Nashvillians have shown up to Metro Council meetings to speak out against the project, and some councilmembers and state lawmakers say they have heard constituent concerns. When asked about the council’s resolution opposing the project, Senate Majority Leader Johnson dismissed the idea that most people are against the Music City Loop.
“I was disappointed, and frankly, I don’t think it’s reflective of the general populace,” Johnson told reporters in March. “I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm for this particular project and what it could do long-term to improve our traffic congestion.”
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This also appears to be the narrative being pushed by The Boring Company.
“We wouldn’t go into a city and fight to build something that’s so expensive and labor-intensive, and it’s just an incredibly difficult project,” The Boring Company president Steve Davis said during a virtual town hall event hosted on the Musk-owned social media platform X in November. “We’re still going because everyone has been unbelievably positive.”
While there has been support expressed for the tunnel from local leaders in the hospitality and tourism industries, there’s been little evidence to show that a majority of Nashvillians are in favor of the project.
Because the state legislature is controlled by a Republican supermajority, and because Republicans are lockstep in their support of the project, there’s not much anyone can do to halt the progress of the tunnel. But as it continues to develop, legal action is one tactic its opponents may consider — whether it’s in response to the Music City Loop’s environmental impact, labor practices or potential safety concerns.
“I think [The Boring Company] chose the state of Tennessee specifically because they had the full backing of a Republican legislature and governor that will do anything that they want when asked,” Oliver says.
The Boring Company did not respond to the Scene’s requests for comment.
As The Boring Company tunnels forward, we explore the company’s track record, the tunnel’s environmental impact and the politics surrounding the project
