Memorial Tunnel

The Memorial Tunnel is a 2802ft two-lane vehicular tunnel that formerly carried the West Virginia Turnpike through/under Paint Creek Mountain in Standard, West Virginia in Kanawha County. Closed to interstate traffic since 1987, the tunnel serves as the Center for National Response for military first responders to train for various situations that may arise in such a location without alarming the general public.The tunnel's bypass is not unlike the Pennsylvania Turnpike bypassing the Laurel Hill Tunnel in 1964, followed by the bypass of the Rays Hill and Sideling Hill Tunnels in 1968.HistoryConstruction of the Memorial Tunnel commenced in 1952 and it officially opened to traffic on November 8, 1954, at a final cost of $5 million. Its construction required the movement of 91000cuyd of earth, and it was the first tunnel in the nation to have closed-circuit television monitoring. By 1976, upgrades to the Turnpike commenced, and by 1983 all but the Memorial Tunnel had been completed. The tunnel created a bottleneck – the 4-lane, divided highway turnpike had to merge into the two-lane, two-way traffic configuration of the tunnel, which also had a lower speed limit. This resulted in traffic backups during periods of increased traffic, such as holiday travel seasons. Instead of upgrading and expanding the tunnel, a 1.72mi extension was constructed to serve as a bypass for both the tunnel and the Bender Bridge. Costing $35 million to complete, 10000000cuyd of earth were removed in addition to 300,000 tons of coal being removed from the mountain. The final vehicle would pass through the tunnel on July 7, 1987, and it would subsequently close for use for pass-through vehicular traffic.