Highway Tunnel Rehabilitation
Two tunnel bores rebuilt inside and out, one at a time, with traffic flowing through the other.
- Owner
- Confidential
- Location
- U.S.
- Market
- Highways & Roads
- Delivery
- Design-build
- Scale
- 2 bores, 3,800 LF
- Completed
- 2024
New lining, lighting, ventilation and fire systems for a twin-bore highway tunnel, delivered one bore at a time with traffic flowing in the other.
The tunnel could not close. Both directions of traffic had to share a single bore while the other was stripped back to its structure and rebuilt with a new lining, LED lighting, jet fans, fire detection, standpipes and a control system that watches it all. Each bore ran 3,800 feet, and every closure and switch-over had to be planned to the hour around rush-hour traffic and emergency access.
The approach.
- 01
One bore at a time
Two-way traffic ran in one bore while the other was rebuilt, with barriers, signage and incident response plans agreed with the highway operator.
- 02
A rehearsed traffic switch
Each switch-over had an hour-by-hour plan covering striping, signals and barriers, with crews and equipment staged the night before.
- 03
Systems tested before traffic
Lighting, ventilation, fire detection, cameras and the tunnel control network were installed and point-to-point tested by our systems team before each bore reopened.
- 04
Smoke tests on purpose
Ventilation was proven with controlled smoke tests overnight, with fire crews on site to watch the fans clear the bore.
The outcome.
“A tunnel is a road with a roof and a lot of electronics. We tested the electronics as hard as the road.”
Project manager, Tum Harry
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