 View of the original tunnel (closed in 1994) from a 1907 postcard | |
 Interactive map of St. Clair Tunnel | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Paul M. Tellier Tunnel (second tunnel) |
| Location | St. Clair River betweenPort Huron, Michigan andSarnia,Ontario |
| Coordinates | 42°57′30″N82°24′38″W / 42.95833°N 82.41056°W /42.95833; -82.41056 |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1891 (first tunnel) 1994 (second tunnel) |
| Closed | 1994 (first tunnel) |
| Operator | Canadian National Railway |
| Technical | |
| Length | 6,025 feet (1,836 m) (first tunnel) 6,129 feet (1,868 m) (second tunnel) |
| No. oftracks | Single (each tunnel) |
  | |
| Designated | October 15, 1970[1] |
| Reference no. | 70000684 |
| Designated | April 19, 1993[2] |
| Built | 1889 |
| Architect | Beach, Alfred; Hobson, Joseph |
| Governing body | Private |
TheSt. Clair Tunnel is the name for two separate rail tunnels which were built under theSt. Clair River betweenSarnia,Ontario andPort Huron, Michigan. The original, opened in 1891 and used until it was replaced by a new larger tunnel in 1994, was the first full-size subaqueous tunnel built in North America.[3] (By full-size it is meant that it allowed a railroad to run through it.) It is aNational Historic Landmark of the United States, and has been designated a civil engineering landmark by both US and Canadian engineering bodies.
The first underwater rail tunnel in North America[4] was opened by the St. Clair Tunnel Company in 1891. The company was a subsidiary of theGrand Trunk Railway (GTR), which used the new route to connect with its subsidiaryChicago and Grand Trunk Railway, predecessor to theGrand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW). Before the tunnel's construction, Grand Trunk was forced to use time-consumingrail ferries to transfer cargo.
The tunnel was an engineering marvel in its day and designed by Joseph Hobson.[5] The development of original techniques were achieved for excavating in acompressed air environment. The Beachtunnelling shield, designed byAlfred Ely Beach, was used to assist workmen in removing material from the route of the tunnel and left a continuous iron tube nearly 7,000 feet (2,100 m) long.[6] Freight trains used the tunnel initially with the first passenger trains using it in 1892.
The tunnel measured 6,025 feet (1,836 m) from portal to portal. The actual width of the St. Clair River at this crossing is only 2,290 feet (698 m). The tube had a diameter of 19 feet 10 inches (6.05 m) and hosted a singlestandard gauge track. It was built at a cost of $2.7 million (equivalent to $94.5 million in 2024).
Steam locomotives were used initially used to pull trains through the tunnel, however concerns over suffocation should a train stall while inside led to the installation ofcatenary wires for electric locomotives by 1907. These entered regular service on May 17, 1908.[7] The locomotives were built by Baldwin-Westinghouse.[8]
A total of six electric locomotives were supplied by 1909. Each were equipped with three 240 hp (180 kW) single-phase motors and weighed 65 short tons (59.0 t; 58.0 long tons). They had a rigid wheel base and operated on a 3,300-volt, 25 cycle, single phase current. They had a maximum draw bar pull of 40,000 lbf (180 kN) and a running draw bar pull of 25,000 pounds-force (110 kN) at 10 miles per hour (16 km/h). According to a 1909 publication,double heading was standard practice when pulling 1,000 short tons (907.2 t; 892.9 long tons) trains up the 2% grade. The electric line's total length was 4 miles (6.4 km) and the trains were able run between 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) to 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). The Grand Trunk Railway used the locomotives to transfer both passenger and freight trains through the tunnel.[9]
In 1923, the GTR wasnationalized by Canada's federal government, which then merged the bankrupt railway into the recently formedCanadian National Railway. CN also assumed control of Grand Trunk Western as a subsidiary and the tunnel company and continued operations much as before.
The electric locomotives were retired in 1958 and scrapped in 1959 after CN withdrew its last steam locomotives on trains passing through the tunnel. Newdiesel locomotives did not cause the sameair quality problems in this relatively short tunnel.
After theWorld War II, railways in North America started to see thedimensions offreight cars increase. Canadian National (identified as CN after 1960) was forced to rely upon rail ferries to carry freight cars, such ashicube boxcars,automobile carriers, certainintermodal cars and chemicaltankers, which exceeded the limits of thetunnel's dimensions.
The tunnel was designated a Civil Engineering Landmark by both theCanadian and theAmerican Societies of Civil Engineers in 1991.[3]
The tunnel was declared a U.S.National Historic Landmark in 1993.[2][3]
The construction of the tunnel has also been recognized asNational Historic Event byParks Canada since 1992, with a plaque at the site.[10]
The second tunnel was built to handle intermodal rail cars with double-stackedshipping containers, which could not fit through the original tunnel or theMichigan Central Railway Tunnel in Detroit.[4] By the early 1990s, CN had commissioned engineering studies for a replacement tunnel to be built adjacent to the existing St. Clair River tunnel. In 1992, new CN presidentPaul Tellier foresaw that CN would increase its traffic in theToronto–Chicago corridor. TheCanada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement was implemented in 1989 and discussions for aNorth American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico discussions were underway at that time (NAFTA was implemented in 1994). It was anticipated that import/export traffic on CN's corridor would increase dramatically as a result.
In 1993, CN began construction of the newer and larger tunnel. Tellier declared at the ceremonies:
[The] tunnel will give CN the efficiencies it needs to become a strong competitive force in North American transportation
Unlike the first tunnel, which was hand dug from both ends, the new tunnel was constructed using atunnel boring machine namedExcalibore. It started on the Canadian side and dug its way to the U.S.
The tunnel opened in late 1994 whereupon trains stopped using the adjacent original tunnel, whose bore was sealed. The new tunnel was dedicated on May 5, 1995. It measures 6,129 feet (1,868 m) from portal to portal with a bore diameter of 27 feet 6 inches (8.38 m). It has a single standard gauge track that can accommodate all freight cars currently in service in North America; for this reason, the rail ferries were also retired in 1994 when the new tunnel opened.
On November 30, 2004, CN announced that the new St. Clair River tunnel would be named thePaul M. Tellier Tunnel in honour of the company's retired president,Paul Tellier, who foresaw the impact the tunnel would have on CN's eastern freight corridor. Signs bearing his name were installed over each tunnel portal.
On June 28, 2019, train CN M38331 28, hauling 100+ cars, had 40 cars derail in the tunnel, spilling 13,700 U.S. gallons (52,000 L) ofsulfuric acid and closing the tunnel for several days afterwards.[11] The tunnel re-opened on July 10, 2019.[12] TheTransportation Safety Board of Canada revealed that a modifiedgondola partial failure caused the car's trucks to become askew and a derailment.[13]
The first underwater railroad tunnel to a foreign country was the St. Clair Railway tunnel between Port Huron, MI, and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, which was opened for freight traffic on September 19, 1891, and for passenger traffic on December 7. The tunnel was designed and built under the supervision of Joseph Hobson, chief engineer of the Grand Trunk Railway (later the Canadian National Railways), at a cost of $2.7 million. Its length from portal to portal was 6,025 feet.
Crossings of theSt. Clair River | ||||
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