The Elon Musk-owned company preparing to dig a 10-mile tunnel from downtown Nashville to the airport is estimating a cost of $240 million to $300 million to build two underground lanes to ferry passengers back and forth.
Jim Fitzgerald, chief of development for The Boring Co., told the Nashville Rotary Club on Monday that’s how much the company would charge the state under a commercial contract. Because of its engineering-based operations, which keep most facets of work in-house, Fitzgerald said his firm can do the job cheaper than the industry rate of roughly $500 million to more than $1 billion per mile for two lanes. Riders would catch Musk’s Tesla vehicles at above-ground locations and ride in tunnels to their destination.
“That is one of the ways that we are trying to disrupt the tunneling transportation infrastructure industry,” Fitzgerald said in response to audience questions.
A 2018 transportation plan proposed by former Mayor Megan Barry projected the cost for a light rail system at $200 million per mile, a total cost of $5.4 billion for 24 miles of rail along five corridors. Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s new transportation plan focuses more on bus transit and doesn’t include light rail construction.
Nashville organizations such as the Music City Center and Chamber of Commerce are backing the Boring proposal because of the possibility of reducing traffic congestion. Numerous residents raised questions about it at a State Building Commission meeting, including environmental impacts.