The George Wallace Tunnel is a pair of 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 cons ...

s that carry

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally p ...

through

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama ...

from the city's downtown, going beneath the

Mobile River The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georg ...

, and emerging on Blakeley Island where they join the Jubilee Parkway over

Mobile Bay Mobile Bay ( ) is a shallow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The ...

."Frequently Asked Questions" (notes), Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, 2006
MCCOM-FAQ web page
It, like the smaller

Bankhead Tunnel The Bankhead Tunnel, formally the John H. Bankhead Tunnel, is a road tunnel in Mobile, Alabama that carries Government Street under the Mobile River from Blakeley Island to the downtown Mobile business district. "Mobile City Guide" (map, lan ...

a few blocks upriver from it, was constructed in Mobile at the shipyards of the

Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company The Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO) located in Mobile, Alabama, was one of the largest marine production facilities in the United States of America during the 20th century. It began operation in 1917, and expanded dramatical ...

(ADDSCO) from 1969-1973. The George Corley Wallace Tunnel, actually two separate tunnels (one for two lanes of travel eastbound, and one for two lanes of travel westbound on Interstate 10), was built in sections and floated to the proper positions, then sunk. Each section was sunk next to the previous section and joined underwater. When all sections were connected, and concrete set into place, they were pumped dry and finished out. The depth of clearance is 40 ft (12.2 m) for the ship channel over the tunnel. This is the same clearance as the older Bankhead Tunnel. The tunnel was officially opened to traffic on February 9, 1973, after $50 million ($291.8 million in 2020 dollars) was spent to construct it.George C. Wallace Tunnel
/ref> It was named after George Wallace, the

Governor of Alabama A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

at that time.

Entrances

The George C. Wallace Tunnel, like the Bankhead Tunnel, emerges on the west end under Royal Street, in downtown Mobile (''see map''); however, whereas the Bankhead Tunnel emerges at street level joining into Government Street, the George C. Wallace Tunnel slopes upward to continue Interstate 10 as an elevated highway above the Mobile streets. On the eastern end, over Blakeley Island, the George C. Wallace Tunnel again slopes upward becoming the elevated spans of I-10, which cross

eastward, along the twin bridges of the curved I-10 Jubilee Parkway. The western approach of the tunnel features a sharp curve which causes lengthy traffic backups in each direction depending on demand, and is part of the impetus to study a replacement for the tunnel.

Nearby construction

In the area where the George C. Wallace Tunnel passes beneath downtown Mobile, the re-filled area was later topped with a reconstruction of

Fort Conde Fort Charlotte, Mobile (french: Fort Condé de la Mobille and es, Fuerte Carlota de Mobila) is a partially-reconstructed 18th-century fort in Mobile, Alabama. Background The ships of the original French settlers, sailing to Old Biloxi ...

and several other new buildings, extending from the Mobile River for several blocks, along Water Street and Commerce Street. Because the tunnel tubes emerge within downtown Mobile, the riverbank along the Mobile River appears as an unbroken, continuous waterfront, with no other signs of the tunnels below.

Replacement

The tunnel is expected to be bypassed by a

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, normally forming a fan-like pattern ...

which will be a

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...

. The existing tunnel will remain as is and will still be in use.

In literature

Author Michael Knight mentions the tunnel in his short story "Our Lady of the Roses," first published in The Southern Review and collected in his ''Eveningland'' (2017). He refers to a game Mobile children play whenever they ride through the tunnel. They attempt to hold their breaths all the way through the passage.Knight, Michael. "Our Lady of the Roses," in ''Eveningland'' (New York: Grove Press, 2017), 92.

References

External links

Dash Cam Video: Interstate 10 George Wallace Tunnel
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