What does Elon Musk’s Music City tunnel have to do with civilizational collapse, Martian colonization, and technocratic control? Everything, unfortunately.
I'm a lifelong Nashville resident with family history here since 1804. This came as a surprise to me and when the city was proposing a transit tunnel a couple of years ago I thought it was ridiculous but having it done at Boring company expense and not as part of a massive project that takes away lanes from our major streets changes my attitude.
Nashville had an extensive electric streetcar system long ago. It was lost after a shortsighted effort to make it compete with bus companies - since it needed tracks there could be only one streetcar company and the bus company lobbied for it to be broken up into neighborhood streetcar companies to make it "fair". Of course the suburban lines couldn't turn a profit so they rapidly failed, and without the suburban lines to feed it the urban company failed immediately thereafter. But the private bus companies couldn't turn a profit either so they rapidly failed as well leaving us with no private urban transit companies at all. Which may have been what big government types wanted all along. My cousin, a retired teacher, had her entire savings in Nashville Electric Railway stock, and she lost everything.
Our limestone is known for caves - there's a sealed one under my neighborhood. I wonder what the Boring Company will do with any caves it encounters.
Generally, as I understand it, a city decides on an infrastructure project and then puts out an RFP that companies can bid on. In this case it sounds like the company went looking for a city where THEY could pay for the privilege of building a tunnel. And better yet, they didn’t talk to the city managers at all. Nor engage in the well-accepted standard of public consultations. If you want to use public lands -- i.e. common wealth -- this is a minimum requirement.
What’s the downside? Zero accountability when things go wrong on a project that no one had input on and that will now require public funds to maintain, repair or remediate.
This is a complex and potentially untested process in this area with this geology. Personally, if I was a Nashvillian, I’d be displeased with my elected officials and I’d ask what accountability any of the actors have should things go pear shaped. None of those questions have been answered.
The things that I see that are worthless in the Las Vegas project are more of a problem with the lack of integration with the existing infrastructure.
Instead of a loop (which it is named after) you have a one lane tunnel that alternates traffic. With only one direction, you end up with having to wait for the traffic coming the other way until your turn. A parallel tunnel could easily fix that problem.
The whole idea of a human driver driving through the the tunnel in a surface car is ridiculous. In a closed system, the self driving could be accomplished with a stripe of paint down the middle of the lane. A guide rail would be even easier. You could easily build an automated system and even a power delivery system to make it run every couple minutes.
They have been tunneling through mountainous regions since at least the Roman times. That isn't really an issue.
I have reservations about the current consultation process anyway. The city managers have no expertise or experience to draw on. There are also people who will be against any innovation and will use it to make it too expensive. Especially in a tourist location where maintaining the status quo where they have a captive market is so profitable. This is a very disruptive technology. Think of all the car rentals, the taxis, parking garages, airport parking.
Many cities in the US had mass transit that was removed or prevented. Cities like Oklahoma City had streetcars that were ripped out. Very few cities planned in advance to accommodate for it. One exception was Salt Lake City where they had created streets wide enough where they had the forethought for a rail system that could be added. They generally only think about it once the traffic problem has reached a crisis point. Then there is the issue that once an area is built up, surface transportation gets exponentially more expensive.
The problem with public works is that everybody wants the services... as long as it happens somewhere else. They only want public transportation when it brings people to their business. The problem with most US mass transport systems is that they don't go were most people want to go. They end up having "Park and Ride" where people still need to have a car to be able to use them and require huge parking lots to leave their cars when the get onto the transit systems. Airports are generally out in the middle of nowhere where you have to rent a car just to go the last few miles to your destination.
There is accountability with every election. Sooner if they have recall elections. If it doesn't work out, the tunnels can be filled in pretty quickly with a few dump trucks of rubble. Filling a tunnel is much easier than excavating one. They can also be repurposed. There is always a need for pipes and cables to be run different places. Old mines are often repurposed for storage.
There are miles of existing underground systems that usually cost billions of dollars to develop. It is much less disruptive than the above ground equivalent.
The government grants access to companies to develop things all the time. Usually it comes with a price reflecting the resources extracted. With no resources being extracted, a potential win for transportation, and bringing jobs to the community, there doesn't seem to be much of a downside.
There are not many projects that are actually built by the government. They don't have teams of bridge builders, highway construction crews, and the like. The actual work is all hired out to private companies who get chosen by making the lowest bid.
Maybe Musk is wrong. The worst case scenario is that there will be an unused subway tunnel from the airport to downtown. It sure beats the billions of dollars wasted on other systems that never get completed and the tax dollars are just wasted.
I'm a lifelong Nashville resident with family history here since 1804. This came as a surprise to me and when the city was proposing a transit tunnel a couple of years ago I thought it was ridiculous but having it done at Boring company expense and not as part of a massive project that takes away lanes from our major streets changes my attitude.
Nashville had an extensive electric streetcar system long ago. It was lost after a shortsighted effort to make it compete with bus companies - since it needed tracks there could be only one streetcar company and the bus company lobbied for it to be broken up into neighborhood streetcar companies to make it "fair". Of course the suburban lines couldn't turn a profit so they rapidly failed, and without the suburban lines to feed it the urban company failed immediately thereafter. But the private bus companies couldn't turn a profit either so they rapidly failed as well leaving us with no private urban transit companies at all. Which may have been what big government types wanted all along. My cousin, a retired teacher, had her entire savings in Nashville Electric Railway stock, and she lost everything.
Our limestone is known for caves - there's a sealed one under my neighborhood. I wonder what the Boring Company will do with any caves it encounters.
Thanks for the “boots on the ground” perpective, Rick. Will you keep us posted on how things go?
This was a Boring article..
I will see myself out.. :P
Ha ha
Generally, as I understand it, a city decides on an infrastructure project and then puts out an RFP that companies can bid on. In this case it sounds like the company went looking for a city where THEY could pay for the privilege of building a tunnel. And better yet, they didn’t talk to the city managers at all. Nor engage in the well-accepted standard of public consultations. If you want to use public lands -- i.e. common wealth -- this is a minimum requirement.
What’s the downside? Zero accountability when things go wrong on a project that no one had input on and that will now require public funds to maintain, repair or remediate.
This is a complex and potentially untested process in this area with this geology. Personally, if I was a Nashvillian, I’d be displeased with my elected officials and I’d ask what accountability any of the actors have should things go pear shaped. None of those questions have been answered.
So there’s that.
The things that I see that are worthless in the Las Vegas project are more of a problem with the lack of integration with the existing infrastructure.
Instead of a loop (which it is named after) you have a one lane tunnel that alternates traffic. With only one direction, you end up with having to wait for the traffic coming the other way until your turn. A parallel tunnel could easily fix that problem.
The whole idea of a human driver driving through the the tunnel in a surface car is ridiculous. In a closed system, the self driving could be accomplished with a stripe of paint down the middle of the lane. A guide rail would be even easier. You could easily build an automated system and even a power delivery system to make it run every couple minutes.
They have been tunneling through mountainous regions since at least the Roman times. That isn't really an issue.
I have reservations about the current consultation process anyway. The city managers have no expertise or experience to draw on. There are also people who will be against any innovation and will use it to make it too expensive. Especially in a tourist location where maintaining the status quo where they have a captive market is so profitable. This is a very disruptive technology. Think of all the car rentals, the taxis, parking garages, airport parking.
Many cities in the US had mass transit that was removed or prevented. Cities like Oklahoma City had streetcars that were ripped out. Very few cities planned in advance to accommodate for it. One exception was Salt Lake City where they had created streets wide enough where they had the forethought for a rail system that could be added. They generally only think about it once the traffic problem has reached a crisis point. Then there is the issue that once an area is built up, surface transportation gets exponentially more expensive.
The problem with public works is that everybody wants the services... as long as it happens somewhere else. They only want public transportation when it brings people to their business. The problem with most US mass transport systems is that they don't go were most people want to go. They end up having "Park and Ride" where people still need to have a car to be able to use them and require huge parking lots to leave their cars when the get onto the transit systems. Airports are generally out in the middle of nowhere where you have to rent a car just to go the last few miles to your destination.
There is accountability with every election. Sooner if they have recall elections. If it doesn't work out, the tunnels can be filled in pretty quickly with a few dump trucks of rubble. Filling a tunnel is much easier than excavating one. They can also be repurposed. There is always a need for pipes and cables to be run different places. Old mines are often repurposed for storage.
There are miles of existing underground systems that usually cost billions of dollars to develop. It is much less disruptive than the above ground equivalent.
The government grants access to companies to develop things all the time. Usually it comes with a price reflecting the resources extracted. With no resources being extracted, a potential win for transportation, and bringing jobs to the community, there doesn't seem to be much of a downside.
There are not many projects that are actually built by the government. They don't have teams of bridge builders, highway construction crews, and the like. The actual work is all hired out to private companies who get chosen by making the lowest bid.
Maybe Musk is wrong. The worst case scenario is that there will be an unused subway tunnel from the airport to downtown. It sure beats the billions of dollars wasted on other systems that never get completed and the tax dollars are just wasted.