The Airport Tunnel, also known as the Sepulveda Boulevard Tunnel, is a highway

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 cons ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, carrying

Sepulveda Boulevard Sepulveda Boulevard is a major street and transportation corridor in the City of Los Angeles and several other cities in western Los Angeles County, California. The street parallels Interstate 405 for much of its route. Portions of Sepulveda Bou ...

underneath the two

runways According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete, o ...

(25L/25R) and taxiways on the south side of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). This section of Sepulveda is a part of California State Route 1. The tunnel was the first tunnel in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to run under an airport runway. In the late-1940s, LAX (then known as Mines Field) was set to have its runways extended. However, Sepulveda Boulevard stood in the way, largely prohibiting the possibility of expansion. Initially, the thoroughfare was rerouted to go around the western end of the runways. In a move to allow Sepulveda Boulevard to return to its original straight-line path, Airport Tunnel was created. The (equivalent to $ million in ) of funding for the project was split between a 1945 bond issue and a federal grant. Construction began in October 1949 and was completed by March 1953. An opening ceremony, held on April 21, 1953, was officiated by Mayor Fletcher Bowron and the first 100 motorists to pass through the tunnel received souvenirs. The tunnel was considered experimental at the time, as the concept had never been built before. The tunnel featured some complex engineering for its time. Two ventilation houses with four fans each to both push fresh air into the tunnel and pull out exhaust fumes, a power substation was built to supply energy to the thousands of vapor lights in the tunnel and the eight fans, rainwater is gathered by a drain system and empties into vaults where the water is pumped out. The road has six lanes (three in each direction) along with six turnouts, each large enough to hold three cars, for vehicles that break down in the tunnel. Over the years, motorists complained about the poor lighting in the tunnel being a safety hazard. The lighting system was overhauled in 1965 and was revamped with

LED lights An LED lamp or LED light bulb is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps and can be significantly more efficient than mos ...

in 2012. Due to exhaust soot buildup, the tunnel is periodically closed for cleaning.

References

{{US-tunnel-stub Tunnels in Los Angeles Los Angeles International Airport Sepulveda Boulevard California State Route 1 Road tunnels in California Tunnels completed in 1953 1953 establishments in California

See also

References