Length: 2595 words (7.4 double-spaced pages)
Rating: Red (FREE)      
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Holland Tunnel

The concept for the Holland Tunnel was developed in 1906.1 In 1906, a coalition of the New York State and New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunnel Commission began studies for a bridge connecting lower Manhattan to Jersey City, New Jersey.2 By the end of World War I (1918), the number of cars and trucks on U.S. roads had skyrocketed. This trend did not differ in the streets of New York City.3 At this time the Hudson River ferries were carrying about 30 million vehicles each year (24,000 vehicles a day3) from New York to New Jersey. This had become a major problem for commuters and a solution was needed.2

Since it would be easier and less expensive to build a bridge rather than a tunnel, a bridge was initially thought to be a better solution. However, to construct a bridge over the Hudson River it would require a minimum clearance of 200 ft. for ships to travel to and from Hudson River ports. Since the Manhattan side of the Hudson did not meet the 200-foot elevation requirement needed for a bridge, new and expensive apparatuses would have to be built on the New York side. Also, a bridge would be affected by poor weather conditions more than a tunnel. In 1913, the joint coalition finally decided to construct a tunnel.2

Over the next couple of years, a number of designs were proposed for the tunnel. The first proposal was presented by a firm called Jacobs and Davies. This plan called for a bi-level tunnel. The upper level would carry slower vehicles and the lower level would be used for express vehicles. An engineer named George Goethals who would later become the chief engineer of the Port Authority made the second proposal. His plan was a bi-level design in which each level would carry opposing lanes of traffic, two lanes in each direction.2 Both of these designs were not taken to the next step. The proposal of Clifford Milburn Holland (see Figure 1) was adopted as the design of the tunnel. Figure 1. Picture of Clifford Milburn Holland. http://www.panynj.gov/tbt/hthist.HTM

His plan called for two separate tubes that would contain two lanes of traffic going in the same direction. After Holland's proposal was adopted he was named Chief Engineer of the “Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel Project” in 1919.3 The tunnel was built with the promise that it could double the daily traffic load across the river effectively.1

Clifford Milburn Holland was born in Somerset, Massachusetts on March 13, 1883. He was the only child of Edward John Holland and Lydia Frances Hood. He married Anna Coolidge Davenport (1885-1973) and had four daughters. At the time he made the proposal for the Holland Tunnel, he was 37-year-old engineer who had previously built subway tunnels under New York's East River.1 Holland died suddenly in 1927. Some say it was because of exhaustion, others say it was because the pressure was to great for him at the Figure 2. Picture of the two sides of the tunnel meeting. http://www.panynj.gov/tbt/hthist.HTM

time when the two ends of the tunnel were to meet (see Figure 2). This caused him to die of a heart attack on the operating table while undergoing a tonsillectomy at a health center in Battle Creek, Michigan.1 Holland was 41 when he died but Milton Freeman, an engineer of construction, succeeded Holland. Unfortunately, Freeman died five months later. Ole Singstad saw the project through to completion in 1927.3 The tunnel was to be named after Holland.4

The Holland Tunnel opened at midnight on November 13, 1927. It provided the first fixed vehicular crossing between New York City and New Jersey. It cost an estimated $48 million. President Calvin Coolidge opened the tunnel with the same key that opened the Panama Canal in 1915.2 One minute past midnight on November 13, a truck making a shipment to Bloomingdale's Department Store in Manhattan was the first non-official vehicle through the Holland Tunnel. In its first day of operation, the tunnel had 51,694 vehicles pass through its two tubes, each paying a 50-cent toll. The tolls were used to pay off the tunnels cost of construction. Excluding the initial $48 million in construction, the Port Authority notes $378,057,000 of cumulative capital was made from the tunnel as of 2003.1 The Port of New York Authority (later the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) took over jurisdiction of the Holland Tunnel in 1931. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is now a bi-state agency that runs most of the regional transportation infrastructure within the New York-New Jersey Port District.1

On May 13, 1949, a chemical truck loaded with 80 drums of carbon disulfide burned on the New Jersey side of the south tube. The enclosed trailer carrying eighty 80-gallon drums of carbon disulfide entered the New Jersey portal of tunnel, in violation of Port Authority regulations and in violation of ICC regulations, in very slow traffic. The drums broke free and ignited upon striking the roadway approximately 2900 ft. into tunnel. Four trucks caught fire and were abandoned and five additional trucks were ignited.2 Tunnel personnel in the tunnel evacuated occupants on foot to New Jersey and started backing vehicles out of tunnel.2 Two exhaust fans were disabled by heat that reached 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, but the third fan was kept in service by water spray. The ceiling at fire scene collapsed. Residual carbon disulfide and turpentine re-flashed during cleanup, but was eventually extinguished.2 Ten trucks and cargoes were completely destroyed and 13 others were damaged. 600 feet of tunnel wall and ceiling were demolished. 650 tons of debris was removed from the tunnel. All cable and wire connections through the tunnel at the fire site of the tube were disrupted. The total damage was estimated at $1.0 million (in 1949 dollars). There were 66 injuries, 27 requiring hospitalization and no fatalities. 2 As a result of this accident, strict standards are now established for the transporting of explosives and hazardous material.4

More than half a century later, the tunnel was threatened by fire again. On March 25, 2002, a fire at an abandoned warehouse and storage facility in Jersey City threatened the western portals of the Holland Tunnel, including the toll plaza. For several days, the Port Authority closed the tunnel to all traffic while firefighters tried to extinguish the fire.2 Also, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the tunnel remained closed to all but emergency traffic for a month. When it reopened, strict new regulations banned single-occupant vehicles and trucks from entering the tunnel. It wasn't until November 17, 2003 that the single occupancy vehicle restrictions were lifted.1

In 1984, the American Society of Civil Engineers honored the tunnel and named it a "National Civil Engineering Landmark" for being the world's first mechanically ventilated vehicular tunnel. According to the Port Authority, the Holland Tunnel carries approximately 100,000 vehicles per day between Jersey City, New Jersey and Canal Street in lower Manhattan. In its 75 years of operation, it has carried more than 1.3 billion vehicles.

In 1992 a complete renovation of the toll plaza and administration building was completed. The tunnel is currently operated around the clock by a staff of more than 300 employees, including operations staff, police, toll collectors, and maintenance workers (see Figure 3).4







Figure 3. Picture of a toll collector working in the Holland Tunnel. http://www.panynj.gov/tbt



/hthist.HTM 10















Engineering
The 1.6-mile span of the Holland Tunnel was the first tunnel under the Hudson River that allowed for the passing of motor vehicles. When it was opened, it was the longest underwater, mechanically ventilated tunnel in the world. The tunnel was a technological achievement that pioneered the solution to many engineering problems. The tunnel actually provided for first-of-their-kind traffic engineering studies to determine the tunnel’s ideal location for traffic and street systems. The purpose of these studies was to figure out appropriate tunnel dimensions, and to plan its plazas. A novel idea that these studies discovered was separating the entrance and exit plazas in order to minimize street congestion. This idea has been copied many times since the conception of the Holland Tunnel.5

Twin, shield-driven, cast iron-lined tunnels were the characteristics that were to define the Holland Tunnel. The two tunnels would be Figure 4. Picture of the layout of the tunneling process with various parts labeled.

www.asme.org/history/brochures/h093.pdf

nine meters in diameter, which was twice the diameter of earlier rapid transit tunnels. These decisions provided lofty expectations of the engineers and builders of this tunnel. Designing a ventilation system to clear the tunnel of automobile and truck exhaust was possibly their greatest obstacle. This kind of system had never been dealt with on such a large scale. 5

The Holland Tunnel builders considered three main possibilities of construction. A great diagram of this operation can be seen in figure 4. Using the trench, caisson, and shield methods were all analyzed in depth. The busy river traffic of the Hudson and the soft silt of the river bottom were the decisive factors in choosing the shield method. After many tunnel cross sections were drawn up, a layout of two, two-lane circular tubes with roadways of 6.1 meters wide was decided upon. Although this width seems narrow today, at the time it was very generous. After this, excavation with the shield method was ready to go. The shield method that was implemented was invented and first used by Marc Sambaed Brunel for the excavation of a tunnel under the River Thames in London. The shield system basically consists of a steel cylinder whose forward end acts as a cutting edge. A partition at the bottom of the cutting face prevents the river bottom from entering the shield, unless permitted for removing spoil. Spoil is the soil that is removed when digging and has to be transported out of the tunnel. This spoil was passed over a conveyer belt into material cars which teams guided out of the tunnel and disposed of. 5

The inside of the shield holds hydraulic jacks which push against the completed tunnel lining in order to push the shield ahead when pressure is applied. The shields purpose is to dig into the soil and provide a temporary support for the soil while iron lining rings are erected. Then, when the shield is pushed forward further, the iron rings are able to support the tunnel by themselves. When the shield is pushed forward the distance of one lining ring, segments of the next iron ring are put into place and bolted together to continuously extend the lining. A picture of the workers placing lining segments can be seen in figure 5. The rear of the shield, as a safety precaution, always supports a ring behind the one being erected for extra support. 5

Figure 5. Shows the hydraulic arm being used to place the lining segments.

www.asme.org/history/brochures/h093.pdf







The main portion of the tunnel was underwater and therefore required compressed air to be added to counterbalance the pressure of the water trying to enter the tunnel. In October 26, 1922 compressed air was introduced into the shield chamber on the New York side and actual tunneling began. The shields were approximately 9.2 meters in outer diameter and five meters long. 5 The upper half had a hood projecting three quarters of a meter ahead of the shield. Each shield was equipped with thirty 10-inch jacks with a combined thrust of 6,000 tons and a hydraulic erector for lifting the lining segments into place and form rings. Each shield weighed around 400 tons with all of the equipment in place. 5

Tunnel construction workers in this project were called “sandhogs” and are credited for saying “Think twice, you only live once.” 2 This quote summed up the danger of working in the tunnel. Teams of “sandhogs” followed the two massive 400-ton shields removing mud, blasting through rock, and bolting together the iron sections that formed the ringed lining of the tunnel. In the process, they used a total of 115,000 tons of cast-iron steel and 130,000 cubic yards of concrete in lining the tunnel. 2 On a good day, “sandhogs” could move the shield about 40 feet. Although there was an airlock for the men, they still frequently suffered from “the bends” which is an affliction resulting from being in the compressed air of the tunnel. A total of 13 workers died during the construction of the Holland Tunnel, but none were supposedly a result of “the bends.” 2

The chief challenge in the production was to design a ventilation system for an underwater tunnel specifically intended to deal with internal combustion vehicles. The planners of the tunnel consulted Yale University, the University of Illinois, and the United States Bureau of Mines. The end goal was to make the air in the tunnel as safe as Figure 6. A diagram of the Transverse-Flow system in the Holland Tunnel.

www.asme.org/history/brochures/h093.pdf





air on the outside. After a thorough investigation, a system that is now called Transverse-Flow Type ventilation was adopted. In the Holland Tunnel’s transverse-flow system, fresh air is drawn from the outside through one of four ventilation buildings and blown by fans into a fresh air duct located under each tunnel roadway. The air enters the tunnel through narrow slots just above the curb. These slots are spaced about 3 meters apart. Exhaust fans, also located in the ventilation buildings, pull the exhaust filled air through openings in the ceiling into an exhaust duct location above the ceiling slab. The fans then discharge the dirty air into the open air through the roofs of the ventilation buildings. The basic diagram of this operation can be seen in figure 6. 5

There were two ventilation buildings in New Jersey and two in New York. They house a total of 84 fans, which are broken into 42 blower units and 42 exhaust units. At full speed, with all fans active, the tunnel is able to have its air completely changed every 90 seconds. Only 56 out of the 84 fans are in operation at any given time. The other 28 fans are reserved for emergencies. Air samples are taken continuously from every exhaust duct of the tunnel and are passed through analyzers, which record the amount of carbon monoxide being generated by tunnel traffic. Constant monitoring of the analyzers allows for speed changes of ventilation to coincide with the level of exhaust being outputted. A central control board, located in the Supervisory Control Room, is manned 24 hours a day. It provides unbroken surveillance of all ventilation equipment and tunnel lighting. Figure 7. A look at blower fan number 2.

www.asme.org/history/brochures/h093.pdf



An indicator light system enables a supervisor to locate a problem in the tunnel immediately. 5

The Holland Tunnel has strengthened the economy of New York and New Jersey and has brought them closer together. Today, commercial traffic travels the span of the Hudson in minutes where in ferries it used to take hours. Clifford M. Holland’s death during the project speaks volumes of his determination that he put into the construction of the Holland Tunnel. The tunnel is unique in that it is named for the engineer who built it. Its design was a model for the Lincoln, Queens, Midtown, Brooklyn-Battery and many other tunnels worldwide. 5







Figure 8. Traffic traveling from the New York side to the New Jersey side of the Holland tunnel through one of the two tubes.

www.asme.org/history/brochures/h093.pdf
























References



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_Tunnel
http://www.nycroads.com/crossings/holland/
http://enr.construction.com/advertise/aboutUs/125enrHistory/990405.asp
http://www.panynj.gov/tbt/hthist.HTM
www.asme.org/history/brochures/h093.pdf