This 2,802' tunnel was just 2 lanes wide and carried the West Virginia Turnpike. When they needed a 4-lane highway, they decided to remove some of the mountain and build a 1.72 mile bypass. After the new road was built, the tunnel was then used for experiments for better designs to handle emergencies, and then it was used for first-response training. In Feb 2022, it was converted to a mushroom farm.
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| Boston Public Library via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) The Bender Bridge at entrance to Memorial Tunnel on the West Virginia Turnpike |
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1 of 3 photos posted by Bridges & Tunnels If you are traveling along the West Virginia Turnpike, you may have noticed the portals to Memorial Tunnel. The ground was broken for the construction of the Turnpike in November 1951 which included the boring of a 2,802 feet tunnel through Paint Creek Mountain and the construction of a deck truss bridge over Paint Creek. Both opened to traffic on November 8, 1954. Studies were undertaken to upgrade the Turnpike in the early 1970s, and work to upgrade the highway to four lanes had commenced later in the decade. Instead of building a second bore through Paint Creek Mountain, it was decided to construct a 1.72-mile bypass of the Memorial Tunnel and bridge over Paint Creek. Requiring the removal of ten million cubic yards of earth, in addition to 300,000 tons of coal, the Memorial Tunnel bypass opened to traffic at the cost of $35 million on July 7, 1987. In the 1990s and 2000s, the tunnel was reused for smoke, fire, and ventilation experiments and by the Center for National Response for anti-terrorism training exercises. It February 2022, the facility was sold to Hernshaw Farms and will be repurposed as a mushroom farm. ➤ Check out more photos of Memorial Tunnel at http://bridgestunnels.com/location/memorial-tunnel/ |
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| Vince Beaver commented on B&T's post |
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