Then all of the sections were covered in special underwater setting concrete, but the most important task was to join and connect the various parts of the tunnel together. The tunnel sections have three main levels: The bottom level brings in fresh air under pressure, which is forced into the mid-level where the traffic lanes are located.
A ventilation section was built at each end of the tunnel. Each section was given 12 fans — six to draw in fresh air and six to blow out used air and automobile emissions. The air inside the tunnel completely changes every 90 seconds.
On a historical note, because the tunnel essentially sits on the river bottom, there is a wide no-anchor zone enforced on all river traffic. After many months of complex construction, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel was completed in The two-lane roadway is 75 feet below the river surface which is amazing for traveling to another country.
Vehicles pay a fee to pass through the tunnel, motorcycles are prohibited from using the tunnel. For more than 80 years the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is still regarded as one of the great engineering wonders of the world and will always be a part of Detroit's great heritage. Photographs are courtesy of Robert Tate's personal collection. Bibliography: Mc Call M. In the planning process, engineers decided that the bridge would accommodate cars and other vehicles only, with two lanes: one going to Canada and one to the U.
In , construction of the tunnel began. Workers actually cut away at the earth using only hand tools, and were shielded from cave-ins by only a piece of metal! To make a trench for the tunnel, a steam-powered shovel scooped out mud from the river floor. When workers on both sides of the river had created an appropriate trench, long tubes of the tunnel were put into place, and sealed with a special water-resistant concrete.
The tunnel finally opened in , with a final length of 1, metres. Most tunnels are now built with the help of tunnel-boring machines TBMs. While extremely expensive, these machines cut the work in half by simply boring through rock, while walls are simultaneously built around the cut-out areas. While the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is the only international underwater border crossing in the world, there are a few other underwater tunnels that are worth noting for their remarkable engineering.
But expenses soared as unexpected limestone formations were encountered. Once again, the tunnel project was abandoned. Clair river at Port Huron opened in , Detroit businessmen who feared that shipping of goods would be diverted to Port Huron demanded a tunnel be built at Detroit. The phenomenal growth of the automobile industry after the end of World War I caused renewed interest in another tunnel between Detroit and Windsor.
Blake Winter, proposed construction of a tunnel for automobile and streetcar traffic as a memorial to the war dead. The idea was immediately popular with patriots on both sides of the river. But bureaucratic bickering and opposition from forces who planned to build the Ambassador Bridge threatened the project. But tunnel partisans refused to be defeated. One such visionary, Fred W.
The firm, Parsons, Klapp, Brinckerhoff and Douglas, agreed to design the tunnel and guarantee its costs. Detroit, New York and Chicago bankers backed the the project. Russell Armstrong Sr, a consulting engineer and surveyor in Windsor, agreed to do the surveying of the Windsor side and to obtrain the necessary land titles.
Armstrong did not get rich on the deal.
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