A New Mile-long Road-vehicle Tunnel
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A Subway Witl; a Road 22-ft. Wide and a Capacity for 1,000 Vehicles Per Hour
THE Detroit and Canada Tunnel, connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, opened a short time ago, is said to be the first vehicular subway ever built between two nations. Two others are in use in the United States—the Holland Tunnel in New York, and the George A. Posey Tunnel, connecting Oakland and Alameda, California. The Detroit and Canada Tunnel is approximately a mile long from portal to portal. The American end is but a few hundred feet from the centre of the financial and shopping districts of Detroit, whilst the Canadian entrance is located in the heart of Windsor's rapidly expanding business centre.
The roadway in the tunnel is 22 ft. wide, allowing one line of traffic in each direction with room for an extra line. The estimated capacity is 1,000 vehicles an hour in each direction. The project has been under construction for 24years, and is costing approximately $25,000,000.
Three separate methods of construe1336 tion were employed in building Detroit's great sub-aqueous highway to Canada. Probably the most spectacular construction feature was the making, launching, towing and sinking of the nine steel tubes comprising the under-water portion of the tunnel. These tubes have an aggregate length of more than half a mile, all of which is under water.
Control Effected from the American Side.
One great control board, located in the American ventilation tower, will con trol all tunnel equipment. Here are hundreds of gauges, meters, switches, circuit-breakers and the like, designed to operate all tunnel equipment with the maximum of safety and efficiency. The power layout is so arranged that any part of the equipment can be operated from either the American or Canadian side. Carbon monoxide detectors will show at all times the exact amount of gas in the tunnel.
The magnitude of the task involved in
the construction of the Detroit and Canada tunnel is well indicated by a few figures relative to work performed and quantities of materials used. The total of excavated material amounted to 525,000 cubic yds., whilst the aggregate of structural steel employed was 11:000 tons. Electrical conduits 50i miles long were used and the road was made up from 2,000,000 granite blocks. For the month of November it was estimated that nearly 124,000 vehicles would use the tunnel, and although figures for the full month are not yet available, records show that for the first seven days the traffic totalled :16,704 vehicles, exclusive of the tunnel company's buses, which is at a much higher rate than was anticipated. Takings for the first 12 months have been estimated at £440,600 and for the month of November at £20,436, whereas income for the first seven days that the tunnel was in use was £6,275. The bus service has, it is stated, helped materially in the use of the tunnel.