Music City Loop: A goldmine of questions beneath Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Less than a week after blasting started on Nashville’s ambitious “Music City Loop,” a 10-mile underground tunnel poised to connect Nashville International Airport to downtown and the convention center, a new question is emerging from the bedrock: Who stands to profit from the valuable limestone being excavated?
The project, with an anticipated opening in early 2027, promises to whisk riders away in Tesla vehicles and avoid surface traffic congestion. In late July, Governor Bill Lee sold the “Music City Loop” on the premise that it would not cost taxpayers a dime.
However, valuable state resources lie beneath the planned tunnel route, and the state’s handling of these resources is now raising questions about who will own them when these resources is extracted from the ground.
Music City Loop: A goldmine of questions beneath Nashville
Elon Musk’s The Boring Company has a no-cost lease with the state to build and operate the tunnel, and company representatives readily admit the difficulty of the task.
“Tough place to tunnel in Nashville,” said company CEO Steve Daivs during the press conference announcing the project. “If we were optimizing for easiest places to tunnel, it would not be here.”
It is a tough challenge, because the company will need to bore through close to 10 miles of dense, cavernous limestone, which Middle Tennessee State University geology professor Mark Abolins says requires some unique expertise.
“Limestone, tunneling through that is quite different from excavating a tunnel through granite for example,” Abolins said. “It has been done, in particular in China and South Korea. And typically, a lot of scientific and engineering expertise is brought to the table.”
And while limestone isn’t exactly gold, Middle Tennessee State University Abolins says limestone isn’t a worthless rock. He estimates it could be worth “tens of dollars per ton” with various uses above ground.
“It can have a variety of uses. Road rock is fairly common,” said Abolins. “And certain limestones can even be powdered and added to supplements for animal feed.”
State Representative John Clemmons, a Nashville Democrat, has been a vocal critic of the project, and since the outset, has been demanding answers regarding the ownership of that limestone.
“This was one of the first questions I asked about the deal as soon as it was announced. Who is going to own that gravel?” Clemmons said. “That gravel, of course, is a very expensive and valuable commodity, especially when we have major infrastructure projects that we need to complete here in the state of Tennessee.”
He believes that since the state owns the land, the excavated limestone should rightfully belong to Tennessee taxpayers.
Clemmons expressed concern that the Lee administration may have already given ownership of the limestone away in its partnership with The Boring Company.
“I was recently told by someone very high in the Lee administration, ‘Oh, we got this handled. We’ll deal with it.”
Despite assurances from the governor that the project will benefit Tennessee and help alleviate congestion in the metropolitan Nashville area, Clemmons remains deeply critical of the Music City Loop, calling it a “joke of a tunnel” that fails to address real traffic or infrastructure needs.
He fears that Tennessee taxpayers will ultimately bear costs, despite claims to the contrary, and has even suggested legal action to halt the project until all questions are answered.
Music City Loop: A goldmine of questions beneath Nashville
As The Boring Company continues its work in downtown Nashville, WSMV4 Investigates has filed public records requests for documents, leases and any memorandum of understanding that would lay out who gets to keep that limestone, The Boring Company, or the state of Tennessee. So far, the state has not located any responsive documents and Governor Lee’s office has not answered our questions about it.
WSMV4 Investigates also tried contacting The Boring Company, asking the same question, but the company has failed to respond.
Clemmons says he isn’t surprised, calling it a complete lack of transparency.
“The entire Lee administration is nothing but smoke and mirrors, and every deal is done behind closed doors,” said Clemmons, who doubts the public will ever see a master agreement between the state and the Boring Company, detailing issues like who owns the limestone. “If we do, it won’t be until it’s too late. The train will have already left the station.”
