HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Baltimore Harbor Tunnel is a pair of two-lane
road tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
s carrying Interstate 895—the Harbor Tunnel Thruway—under the
Patapsco River The Patapsco River mainstem is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal po ...
southeast of downtown
Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
.


Description

The pair of tunnels is long, stretching from the south shore of the Patapsco River to the north shore near
Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, DĂșn Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...
. Each tunnel is wide and high, and accommodates two lanes in each direction. The maximum speed within the tunnel is . Two-way traffic may occur in either tunnel for overnight roadwork or during emergencies that close down one of the tunnels. The Tunnel has lane control signals to control which lanes are open,closed or as contra-flow traffic. Both portals have ventilation buildings, with a total of 32 fans in place to replace the air within the tunnels, which is drawn in through the tunnel floors and exhausted through the tunnel ceilings. The tubes themselves range from a depth of below ground to below ground. As of July 1, 2015, the toll rate for cars is $4.00 cash or $3.00
E-ZPass E-ZPass is an electronic toll collection system used on toll roads, toll bridges, and toll tunnels in the Eastern United States, Midwestern United States, and Southern United States. The E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG) consists of member ...
, paid in both directions. Vehicles with more than two axles pay additional amounts, up to $30.00 for six axles. In March 2020,
all-electronic tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The m ...
was implemented as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, with tolls payable through E-ZPass or
Video Tolling Video tolling (sometimes referred to as video billing, toll by plate, pay by mail, or pay by plate) is a form of electronic toll collection, which uses video or still images of a vehicle's license plate to identify a vehicle liable to pay a road ...
, which uses
automatic license plate recognition Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit te ...
. All-electronic tolling was made permanent in August 2020.


History

The tunnel and approaches were designed by Singstad and Baillie, a New York-based engineering firm specializing in tunnel design, in association with the J. E. Greiner Company, a local Baltimore-based firm. The tunnel was formed out of twenty-one sections individually submerged into the harbor and secured with rocks and backfill; the first of these tunnel segments was sunk on April 11, 1956. The remainder of the tunnel was constructed using the cut-and-cover method, extending from the submerged tubes to the north and south portals. The project's costs would ultimately reach $150 million ($ million in ). The tunnel opened on November 29, 1957 with a dedication by Maryland Governor Theodore McKeldin and a crowd of 4,000 spectators. The initial toll for standard cars was forty cents. In the first 12 hours of operation, the tunnel handled an estimated 10,000 vehicles, mostly drivers from Maryland. In the same period, the tunnel also experienced its first collision (15 minutes after opening), first flat tire and first stalled vehicle. The tunnel was considered a success by the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA), as it eliminated 51 traffic signals for through-traffic in Baltimore, and reduced neighborhood street commercial traffic by up to 40%. However, increased tunnel usage and high traffic volume led to the planning, construction, and opening of the nearby
Fort McHenry Tunnel The Fort McHenry Tunnel is a four-tube, bi-directional tunnel that carries traffic on Interstate 95 (I-95) underneath the Baltimore Harbor. The lowest point in the Interstate System under water, the tunnel is named for nearby Fort McHenry. T ...
in 1985, creating the final link of
Interstate 95 in Maryland Interstate 95 (I-95) is an Interstate Highway running along the East Coast of the United States from Miami, Florida, north to the Canadian border in Houlton, Maine. In Maryland, the route is a major highway that runs diagonally from southwest ...
. The Harbor Tunnel was then closed in phases for extensive rehabilitation, beginning in March 1987. It was fully reopened by 1990. In November 2007, the 50th anniversary of the tunnel serving travelers was observed. In November 2018, the MDTA started a multi-year project to replace the I-895 bridge spans north of the tunnel. The $189 million project also includes $28 million to repair and upgrade the tunnel itself; the entire project is scheduled to be completed by summer 2021.


See also

*


References


External links

{{MdTA facilities Crossings of the Patapsco River Tolled sections of Interstate Highways Transportation buildings and structures in Baltimore Toll tunnels in Maryland Tunnels completed in 1957 Interstate 95 1957 establishments in Maryland Road tunnels in Maryland Immersed tube tunnels in the United States