The Dewey Square Tunnel in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, is part of

Interstate 93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...

(concurrent with

US 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort ...

and Route 3), running under the heart of the city's financial district, including

Dewey Square Dewey Square is a square in downtown Boston, Massachusetts which lies at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue, Summer Street, Federal Street, Purchase Street and the John F. Kennedy Surface Road, with the Central Artery ( I-93) passing und ...

. Built in 1959, it was part of Boston's

Central Artery The Central Artery (officially the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway) is the concurrent section of Interstate 93, US 1 and Route 3 through Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The modern-day Artery, built as part of the Big Dig from ...

freeway construction project of the 1950s.{{cite web, url=http://www.bostonroads.com/roads/central-artery/, title=John F Fitzgerald Expressway-Central Artery (I-93, US 1, and MA 3), publisher= Known to locals as the South Station Tunnel (due to its proximity to

South Station South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan I ...

), the Dewey Square Tunnel is of

cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two Portal (architecture), portals common at each end, though ther ...

design, and originally was six lanes wide (three in each direction), with no breakdown lanes. Because of public outcry during construction of The Central Artery, elevated for most of its length and reviled because it cut off views of and access to Boston's historic waterfront, it was decided by then-Governor John A. Volpe that the final section of the artery was to be put underground from just south of Congress Street to Kneeland Street near Boston's

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

section. At the time of its construction, it was the widest vehicular tunnel in the world. At one time, a bus terminal serving

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...

, Bonanza, and other regional bus lines sat atop the tunnel near its northern portal. The bus station has since been relocated to the major intermodal transportation hub at South Station. The lack of breakdown lanes, the limited number of travel lanes, and the myriad access ramps to and from the Artery and the tunnel caused massive traffic jams and gridlock, forcing transportation officials to consider rebuilding the Artery and putting it totally underground. The Dewey Square Tunnel received new life as part of the massive

Big Dig The Big Dig was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the then elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93 that cut across Boston into the O'Neill Tunnel and built the Ted Williams Tunnel to extend Massachusetts Turnpike, Interstate 90 to Logan I ...

project of the late 1990s and early 2000s. The tunnel was rehabilitated and now serves as exclusive southbound lanes of

, complete with a new ventilation system and gently banked corners consistent with appropriate superelevation. Its old northern portal at Congress Street was connected to the underground southbound lanes of the new artery in 2005. A long-closed northbound off-ramp to Chinatown was rebuilt and reopened as a southbound on-ramp from Surface Road. The refurbished tunnel, with 6 lanes at its widest point, was fully opened on March 5, 2005. The Dewey Square Tunnel is the only remaining section of the original Central Artery still in use. Since the completion of the Big Dig project, the name "Dewey Square (South Station) Tunnel" has fallen into general disuse; instead, it is considered to be part of the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Tunnel, a name used for the entire length of the north–south tunnel system.

References

Road tunnels in Massachusetts Tunnels in Boston U.S. Route 1 Interstate 93 Tunnels completed in 1959