Chesapeake bay bridge tunnel

it’s two parallel decks that narrow back down to two lanes (one in each direction) at the tunnels.

 

I will not fight any of you to drive over any of those.

 

Try not to think about this:
You are driving under the ocean in medal boxes that were sunk and then welded together, then the ends were cut out to make a tunnel.

 

Indeed.

Those tunnels remind me of the Beth Steel Assemblys used in the 50's to build the Baltimore Old Harbor Tunnel for I-895 I believe. That tunnel is strictly 13.5 NOT 13.6 and protected by laser measuring that will order you off the road if you breached 13.5

Anyway Ive got pictures somewhere but Google has it most likely. It's essentially a ship hull in a octagon surrounding a 60 foot length of two traffic tubes with a web of beams. Flooded down, towed as a barge to the tunnel construction, sunk into the seabed, flooded all the way after welding all inside and then buried.

I don;t know how long that steel framework is going to last but in about another 20 years or so they are going to have to start considering reconstruction. The Maryland 301 bay bridges are already approaching that time since 1955.

 

Been over it once going south. Might have been 6 or 7 in the evening. Didnt notice anything scary. One thing out of the ordinary for me tho was how long that sucker was. Pretty interesting and cool. Never been on a bridge over water that was that long before

 

And you have ocean going freighters that are going to be awful close to the seabed above the tunnel works you are driving under. And those ships are HUGE.