Boring Company Receives TDOT Permit for Nashville Music City Loop — Construction Can Begin Now

Nashville's underground transit ambitions just cleared their most critical hurdle. The Boring Company announced today that it has received the official construction permit from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) — the last major regulatory milestone needed to break ground on the Music City Loop. The project, which has been in active coordination with federal, state, and local agencies, is now fully shovel-ready.

The announcement came directly from The Boring Company's official account, specifically thanking Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and TDOT for their coordination across every level of government. The permit acquisition follows a unanimous 7-0 vote by the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) on February 18, 2026, approving a 40-year licensing agreement that paved the way for tunneling operations on airport property.

📊 Key Figures

What Is the Music City Loop?

The Music City Loop is The Boring Company's all-electric, zero-emissions underground transit system designed specifically for Nashville. The planned route connects key urban anchors — downtown Nashville, Music City Center, and Lower Broadway — all the way to West End Avenue and Nashville International Airport (BNA). At approximately 13 miles in its initial phase, it represents one of the most ambitious tunnel transit projects in the United States.

Passengers will travel inside dedicated Tesla vehicles — initially Model Ys and Model Xs — shuttled through tunnels roughly 30 feet below street level. The tunnels themselves have a 12-foot internal diameter, a proven specification from The Boring Company's operational Las Vegas Convention Center Loop. Safety standards will meet or exceed the National Fire Protection Association's NFPA-130 requirements for fire and life safety.

Why the TDOT Permit Is the Critical Unlock

Receiving state-level authorization from TDOT is significant because it completes a multi-layered approval stack that required simultaneous sign-off from federal, state, and local agencies. As recently as February 20, 2026, The Boring Company had publicly indicated it was still waiting on a few remaining permits despite being operationally ready to tunnel. Today's announcement confirms that final gap has been closed.

The MNAA licensing agreement — approved just one week ago on February 18 — was the other cornerstone piece. That unanimous 7-0 board vote locked in a 40-year operating relationship between The Boring Company and Nashville's airport authority, projecting more than $300 million in operational revenue for MNAA over the term, alongside roughly $34 million in licensing fees beginning at $300,000 annually and compounding at 3% per year. Critically, none of this is funded by Tennessee taxpayers — the entire construction and operational cost falls on The Boring Company.

🔭 The BASENOR Take

This is the moment The Boring Company has been building toward in Nashville for months. With both the TDOT construction permit and the MNAA licensing agreement now secured, there are no remaining known regulatory blockers — which is a genuinely unusual position for a project of this scale in the U.S. The fact that it is 100% privately funded removes the political friction that typically slows or kills transit projects at the state budget level.

For Tesla owners specifically, this matters beyond just a local transit story. The Music City Loop represents one of the most advanced real-world deployments of Tesla vehicles in a dedicated mass-transit role. If the Spring 2026 first-segment target holds, Nashville becomes a live proof-of-concept for Elon Musk's vision of Tesla vehicles operating inside Boring Company tunnel networks — a model that could scale to other cities actively in discussions with TBC. The more loops that open successfully, the stronger the case for expansion.

The speed of execution here is also worth noting. The MNAA vote and the TDOT permit came within a single week of each other — a coordination pace that suggests genuine political will at every level of Tennessee government. Governor Lee's explicit mention in The Boring Company's announcement is not ceremonial; it signals top-down executive alignment that typically accelerates construction timelines considerably.

The key near-term question is how quickly physical tunneling commences now that the permits are in hand. The Boring Company has signaled it was operationally ready to begin — so the next visible milestone to watch for is the first confirmed boring machine activity on-site in Nashville.