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Overview | |
---|---|
Official name | George Corley Wallace Tunnel |
Other name(s) | Wallace Tunnel |
Location | Mobile River, Mobile, Alabama |
Coordinates | 30°41′24″N88°02′08″W / 30.69000°N 88.03556°W |
Route | I-10 |
Operation | |
Opened | February 9, 1973 |
Traffic | 78,775 (2015) |
Character | Dual four-lane road tunnel |
Toll | none |
Technical | |
Length | 3,000 feet (914 m) |
No. of lanes | 4 |
Operating speed | 55 miles per hour (89 km/h) |
Tunnel clearance | 16 feet (5 m) |
Depth of tunnel below water level | 40 feet (12 m) (from surface to top of tunnel) |
The George Wallace Tunnel is a pair of road tunnels that carry Interstate 10 through Mobile, Alabama from the city's downtown, going beneath the Mobile River, and emerging on Blakeley Island where they join the Jubilee Parkway over Mobile Bay. [1]
It, like the smaller Bankhead Tunnel a few blocks upriver from it, was constructed in Mobile at the shipyards of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO) from 1969 to 1973. [1] 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. [1] 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. [2] It was named after George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama at the time. [2]
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 Mobile Bay 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.
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 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.
The tunnel is expected to be bypassed by a cable-stayed bridge which will be a toll bridge. The existing tunnel will remain as is and will still be in use. [3]
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. [4]
Mobile is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobile's population increased to 204,689 residents, making it the fourth-most populous city in Alabama, after Montgomery, Birmingham, and Huntsville. Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area, a region of 430,197 residents composed of Mobile and Washington counties; it is the third-largest metropolitan area in the state after Birmingham and Huntsville.
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 Mobile River and Tensaw River empty into the northern end of the bay, making it an estuary. Several smaller rivers also empty into the bay: Dog River, Deer River, and Fowl River on the western side of the bay, and Fish River on the eastern side. Mobile Bay is the fourth-largest estuary in the United States with a discharge of 62,000 cubic feet (1,800 m3) of water per second. Annually, and often several times during the summer months, the fish and crustaceans will swarm the shallow coastline and shore of the bay. This event, appropriately named a jubilee, draws a large crowd because of the abundance of fresh, easily caught seafood.
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at 2,460.34 miles (3,959.53 km), following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally planned network that was laid out in 1956, and its last section was completed in 1990.
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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 45-mile-long (72 km) river drains an area of 44,000 square miles (110,000 km2) of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its drainage basin is the fourth-largest of primary stream drainage basins entirely in the United States. The river has historically provided the principal navigational access for Alabama. Since construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, it also provides an alternative route into the Ohio River watershed.
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Interstate 295 (I-295) also known as the Anacostia Freeway, is a six-mile (9.7 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Maryland and in Washington, D.C.. It connects I-95/I-495 and Maryland Route 210 near the Potomac River to I-695 and District of Columbia Route 295 (DC 295) in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
The Bankhead Highway was a United States cross-country automobile highway connecting Washington, D.C., and San Diego. The Bankhead Highway's beginnings can be traced back to 1916 when the Bankhead Highway Association was organized to promote the highway's development. It was part of the National Auto Trail system. The road was named for Alabama politician John H. Bankhead, a leader in the early national road-building movement. In later years, several stretches of U.S. Route 78 in northwest Alabama were renamed for Bankhead's son, former U.S. Representative and Speaker of the House William B. Bankhead.
The Fort Pitt Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under Mount Washington in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It connects the West End region on the southwest side to the South Shore neighborhood on the northeast side. The adjoining Fort Pitt Bridge on the northeast end connects to Downtown Pittsburgh. The tunnel carries traffic on Interstate 376 (I-376), U.S. Route 22, US 30, and US 19 Truck. The structure comprises two bores, each with two lanes of traffic. The inbound tunnel flows onto the top deck of the double-deck Fort Pitt Bridge, opposite traffic from the lower deck using the outbound tunnel. To accommodate the bridge, the northeast portals of the parallel tunnels are vertically staggered by 30 feet. The tunnel opened in September 1960, a year after the Fort Pitt Bridge.
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. It is named for John H. Bankhead, an Alabama politician and U.S. Senator who was also the grandfather of actress Tallulah Bankhead. It, like the larger George Wallace Tunnel a few blocks downriver from it, was constructed in Mobile at the shipyards of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO), from 1938-1940. The eastern end of the Bankhead Tunnel features a large "flood door" that can be closed to prevent water from Mobile Bay flooding the tunnel during surges from hurricanes or tropical storms. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on January 25, 1977.
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The Jubilee Parkway is a pair of parallel concrete viaduct bridges that carry Interstate 10 across Mobile Bay from the George Wallace Tunnel on Blakeley Island in Mobile, Alabama eastbound to Spanish Fort/Daphne, Alabama. The bridges are similar in design to the pre-Hurricane Katrina I-10 Twin Span Bridge near New Orleans, Louisiana. Each of the two bridges is two lanes wide, for a total of four lanes, and 7.5 miles (12.1 km) long. The parkway was completed in 1978 and crosses the northern portion of Mobile Bay, running roughly parallel to the nearby Battleship Parkway, with which it has an interchange. It was named for the jubilee phenomenon that occurs intermittently in Mobile Bay, but is commonly referred to locally and in the media as the "Bayway".
Battleship Parkway, commonly referred to locally and in the media as the "Causeway", is a 7-mile (11.3 km) long causeway that carries US 90 and US 98 eastbound across Mobile Bay from the Bankhead Tunnel on Blakeley Island in Mobile, Alabama to Spanish Fort, Alabama. The roadway itself is a four-lane divided highway for most of its length. It is very susceptible to flooding and is usually submerged during hurricane storm surges. The Battleship Parkway is home to Battleship Memorial Park and to many of the Mobile area's more prominent seafood restaurants.
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Scottish Rite Temple, also known as The Temple Downtown, is a historic former masonic building in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was built to serve as the meeting place for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. The building was designed by George Bigelow Rogers, a local Mobile architect who was responsible for designing many of the city's buildings during this period. The cornerstone was laid on November 30, 1921, with the building completed in 1922. It is the only intact example of the Egyptian Revival style in Mobile. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 5, 1984. It was sold in 1996 to a private citizen and reopened as a banqueting venue.
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There are six special routes along U.S. Route 98 and seven former routes. Most US 98 bannered routes are located in the U.S. state of Florida.
Blakeley Island is an island in the U.S. state of Alabama, within the city limits of Mobile. Located on the northwestern coast of Mobile Bay, it is bounded on the west by the Mobile River, on the south by Pinto Island and Mobile Bay, and on the east and north by the Spanish River. Blakeley serves as a vital road connection point between the Bankhead Tunnel, George Wallace Tunnel, and Cochrane–Africatown USA Bridge on its east side and the Battleship Parkway and Jubilee Parkway on its west side. The northern end is largely undeveloped, while the southern end is dedicated to industrial uses, primarily petrochemical storage and shipbuilding. The largest complex is the shipyards of Austal USA. Approximately 1.25 miles (2.01 km) at its widest and 6 miles (9.7 km) at its longest, it has an average elevation of 7 feet (2.1 m). It, along with downtown, forms District Two of Mobile's city council districts.