TN Senate Majority Leader proposes 20-person, $5M oversight agency for Boring Company Tunnel

In an effort to keep the state in control of the Boring Company’s underground tunnel through Nashville, a top Tennessee lawmaker wants to create a new agency that oversees all “subterranean transportation infrastructure.”

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Franklin Republican, proposed the legislation, HB 2450/SB 2205, that received approval Tuesday from the Senate Commerce Committee. It would establish the Subterranean Transportation Infrastructure Coordination Authority, an 11-member board and a 20-person staff, with $5 million in funding to issue permits and provide all regulations for subterranean projects. The only project that would fall under this regulation at the moment is the Boring Company’s proposed 13-mile tunnel connecting various parts of downtown Nashville to the airport located just off I-40 East. 

Johnson said the authority is necessary because, after talking with Boring Company officials, he recognized the potential for the project to cross county and city lines. 

“If you’re thinking long term, it makes sense that rather than dealing with this city and this city and different fire marshals and different codes for the subterranean portion of it, that they would have one governing authority that would oversee them,” Johnson told the Lookout. 

In 2025, the Boring Company announced with state officials that it planned to build an underground tunnel connecting the state capitol to Nashville’s Convention Center to the Nashville Airport, and another line running down Broadway and West End into Midtown. 

Nashville’s Boring Company Tunnel will be completely funded by the company, and ultimately paid for by riders. The company only uses Tesla vehicles in its tunnel. Billionaire Elon Musk founded and owns the Boring Company and is the largest stockholder in Tesla. 

Rutherford County Republican Mayor Joe Carr said he favored the privately funded tunnel to relieve traffic in the county, which borders Nashville to the southeast, but opposed a state-appointed board.

“Local governments should have a say,” Carr said. “Typically, my party adheres to the principle, whenever possible, promote local authority and control.”

The common theme among the routes is that they would be built along state-owned roads, allowing the company to skirt Metro Nashville regulations and instead fall under the purview of the state’s transportation department.

Republican state lawmakers have been much more sympathetic to the project than Nashville’s city leaders. Gov. Bill Lee announced Wednesday that the state had approved a lease and permitting for the tunnel. Lee previously said the tunnel was a “forward-thinking, fiscally responsible approach that will define the future of transportation in Tennessee.”

The Metro Nashville Council held a community hearing on the tunnel in mid-February, during which much of the audience and the council members in attendance voiced opposition to the project. 

State lawmaker questions whether LVCVA should be all-in with Vegas Loop, Boring Co.

A resolution sponsored by 10 of council’s 40-members opposed the project for a “lack of transparency, inadequate community and [council] engagement, and troubling labor and safety practices.”

In Las Vegas, Nevada, where the Boring Company built its first tunnel, the company is alleged to have violated environmental regulations nearly 800 times, for such infractions as releasing untreated water into the city and digging without approval. The company has also contested nearly $112,000 in fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for serious violations, including reports of workers suffering chemical burns after being splashed with toxic sludge.

Boring Company officials in attendance at the community hearing in Nashville disputed the charges, emphasizing that they are “alleged” and stating that the vast majority of violations were paperwork issues. 

Democratic Sen. Heidi Campbell of Nashville made a statement Wednesday saying despite 800 safety and environmental violations in Las Vegas, “we’re being asked to quietly hand over control of everything beneath our feet to a brand new subterranean authority made up solely of state appointees.”

Campbell said Johnson introduced an amendment creating the authority just before Tuesday’s Commerce Committee vote.

“This isn’t transparency,” she said. “This isn’t accountability. And it certainly isn’t how we should be governing critical infrastructure that affects every utility and every community in Tennessee.”