Lowry Hill Tunnel
The Lowry Hill Tunnel is a tunnel 1,496 feet (456 m) in length accommodating the Interstate 94 (I-94) freeway near downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota that was completed in late 1971. It is placed at a near-right-angle turn in the highway, forcing the three lanes of traffic in each direction to slow down. The advised speed is 40 miles per hour (64 km/h).
 The entrance of Lowry Hill Tunnel from the north/west, below Hennepin and Lyndale Avenues | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Location | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Coordinates | 44.96583°N 93.288217°W |
| Status | Open |
| Route |  I-94 |
| Crosses | Local streets over Interstate 94 |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1971 |
| Owner | Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) |
| Traffic | Automotive |
| Vehicles per day | 185,000 (2018)[1] |
| Technical | |
| Length | 1,496 ft (455 m)[2] |
| No. of lanes | 6 |
| Operating speed | 35 miles per hour (56 km/h) |
Although constructed as a tunnel through rock, the surface a few yards above is covered with roadways. The tunnel functions as if it were the underpass under a 0.25-mile-wide (400 m) bridge which carries Hennepin Avenue, Lyndale Avenue, and various ramps over I-94.
Opened in November 1971, this tunnel was built with $31 million to help fix the congestion of 30,000 vehicles a day. Today, the Lowry Hill Tunnel sees an average of 185,000 vehicles pass through it each day, 54% more than the Lincoln Tunnel[3] that connects New Jersey to Manhattan.
References
- Rethinking I-94 | Phase 1 Report (PDF) (Report). Minnesota Department of Transportation. 2018.
- Minnesota Bridge Inventory 1955-1970 (PDF) (Report). Minnesota Department of Transportation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2016.
- "2018 Monthly Traffic and Percent of E-ZPass Usage" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-05. Retrieved 2019-01-05.
External links
