Ted Williams Tunnel

Description

The Ted Williams Tunnel is a highway tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts; it is the third in the city to travel under Boston Harbor, with the Sumner Tunnel and the Callahan Tunnel. It carries the final segment of Interstate 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike) from South Boston towards its eastern terminus at Route 1A in East Boston, slightly beyond Logan International Airport. The tunnel is named after the former Boston Red Sox baseball player and U.S. Marine air corps veteran Ted Williams.HistoryThe Ted Williams Tunnel was the first major link constructed as part of Boston's Big Dig. It is constructed from twelve "binocular" shaped steel sections fabricated in a Baltimore shipyard. These sections were then brought to the Black Falcon Pier near the site and each was fitted with a large surrounding mass of concrete . Using additional flotation, the tunnel sections were then floated into place, lowered into a dredged channel, and joined to the other sections. At this point, the steel panels sealing the now-joined sections could be cut out and the finishing operations could be completed.