Our History

Construction

Construction of the Detroit Windsor Tunnel began in the summer of 1928, at approximately the same time on both sides of the Detroit River and was completed in 1930. All phases of construction, including erection of the buildings, were so synchronized that the gigantic task was completed in only 26 months. The roadway of the Detroit Windsor Tunnel runs to a maximum depth of 75 feet below the river’s surface. Even today people ask, “But how did they build it?”

When the Detroit Windsor Tunnel project began, it is said three important construction features emerged as part of the immersed tube sections. These unique and modern construction techniques were called: Cut and Cover, Shield and Trench and Tubing. As workers on the U.S. and Canadian sides excavated approach tunnels sloping to the river’s edge, barge crew on the river dug a 2,454-foot-long trench from shore to shore, dredging 700,000 tons of earth from the river below.

Probably the most spectacular construction feature was the fabrication, launching, towing and sinking of the nine steel tubes comprising the underwater portion of the Tunnel. These tubes have an aggregate length of more than half a mile, all of which are under water. The tubes were built in Ojibway, Ontario and large tugboats towed each tube to the prepared trench where they were anchored while final interior and exterior reinforced concrete was poured and welded watertight.

Almost completely submerged, each tube section was swung into its proper place over the trench, fastened to a barge by steel cables and lowered into place by applying weights to each end. Exact alignment of the tubes was accomplished through the use of tall masts attached to each tube as sunk. Divers joined the tubes together, and each joint was sealed with a collar of tremie cement. The river section was then backfilled with 5 to 20 feet of backfill.

Tunneling crews, meanwhile, drove the shield section toward the tube section from both the Canadian and U.S. sides. When contact with the river tube section was made, there was less than one inch of error.

The Tunnel essentially sits on the river bottom. There is a wide no-anchor zone enforced on all river traffic.

Ventilation

One of the most elaborate ventilation systems ever devised has been installed at the Detroit Windsor Tunnel with the result that air in the Tunnel is purer than in the street outside. Disabled vehicles are removed quickly and safely. Approximately 1,500,000 cubic feet of air is pumped through the Tunnel each minute, which gives a complete change of air every 90 seconds.

Ventilation towers have been constructed at each end of the Tunnel and each building is approximately 100 feet in height. Each structure with its equipment, provides ventilation for half of the Detroit Windsor Tunnel. The equipment consists of motor-driven fresh air fans and exhaust fans arranged in successive tiers in different stories with direct connection to the Tunnel ducts. Each fan is 12 feet in diameter and there are 12 of them in each building.

While the fresh air is drawn into the ventilation building, the vitiated air is expelled through exhausts located at the top of each building. The safety factor of the Tunnel ventilating equipment is so great, say officials, that there is no possibility of the air becoming objectionably gaseous even if most of the fans were to stop functioning.