On Nov. 29, 1957, then Governor Theodore R. McKeldin and the Members of the State Roads Commission celebrated the dedication of the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, an engineering marvel that broke the "Baltimore Bottleneck" and reduced the hour-long crawl through city streets to just 15 minutes. The tunnel provided long-needed relief for travelers in Baltimore and in the region. Today, nearly 72,000 vehicles use the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel each day, more than double the original estimated volume of daily traffic. More than 60% of drivers at the tunnel pay their tolls with E-ZPass, helping to keep the "Baltimore Bottleneck" a thing of the past. Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Facts - Length of tunnel and ramp structures: 9,215 feet or 1.745 miles
- Length of entire project, including tunnel and approaches: 17.56 miles
- Number of twin-tube tunnel sections: 21 (ea. approximately 300 ft.long)
- Baltimore Harbor Tunnel Groundbreaking: April 21, 1955
- First tunnel section was sunk: April 11, 1956
- Number of tiles lining the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel: 6,500,000
- When dedicated, the tunnel was the 5th longest underwater vehicular tunnel in the world
- First person to pay the Harbor Tunnel toll: Omero C. Catan of Teaneck, NJ
- Designer/engineer of the tunnel: Ole Singstad of Singstad and Baillie in New York
- State of Maryland Project Manager of the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel: J.E. Greiner Company, now known as URS Corporation
|
