Wheeling Tunnel
Westbound tunnel entrance
|
|
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Location | Wheeling, West Virginia |
| Coordinates | 40°04′22″N 80°43′11″W / 40.0727192°N 80.719621°WCoordinates: 40°04′22″N 80°43′11″W / 40.0727192°N 80.719621°W |
| Route |
  I‑70 / US 250
|
| Operation | |
| Work begun | August 22, 1963 |
| Opened | December 7, 1966 |
| Operator | WVDOH |
| Vehicles per day | 59,600 (2009 AADT) |
| Technical | |
| Length | 0.27 mi (430 m) |
| No. of lanes | 2 each |
| Operating speed | 45 mph (72 km/h) |
Twin tunnels form the Wheeling Tunnel in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia. The tunnels are 0.27 miles (430 m) long, cutting though Wheeling Hill, and each carries two lanes of Interstate 70 and U.S. Route 250. The tunnels originally took three years to construct, costing $6.9 million. Reconstruction of the tunnel, originally planned to take a total of 6 months, took over three years to complete between 2007 and 2010, at a cost of $13.7 million.
The Wheeling Tunnel sits between exits 1A and 1B on Interstate 70 and U.S. Route 250, which run concurrent through the city of Wheeling. The tunnel cuts through Wheeling Hill, and has two travel lanes in each tube. Due to the closeness of exit 1A to the western end of the tunnels, the tunnels' right lanes function as acceleration and deceleration lanes. Through traffic is restricted to the left lane in each tunnel and lane changes are prohibited.
A series of accidents involving semi-trailer trucks prompted local political candidates to push for trucks to be banned from the tunnel, diverting them to the nearby I-470.
The twin tunnels, which cost $6.9 million (equivalent to $54 million in 2017) to construct, are lined with a total of 13,000 square feet (1,200 m2) of industrial tile. Then governor William Wallace Barron, and the state roads commissioner broke ground on the tunnel on August 22, 1963, which he stated was the largest single construction project in the state's Interstate Highway program. The construction contract was awarded to C.J. Langenfelder & Son, Inc. located in Baltimore, Maryland. Several workers became ill after being exposed to high amounts of carbon monoxide fumes, which brought construction to a halt in 1964 until ventilation fans were installed. The tunnel officially opened to traffic on December 7, 1966.
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