Snarled New Haven Detour Vanishes As Connecticut Opens Rock Tunnel

Fifteen torturous minutes disappeared from the road to New York yesterday.

In a simple tape-cutting ceremony, Connecticut opened the New Haven section of the Wilbur Cross Parkway and left the commando-course city traffic to the local citizenry and the Yalies. The result is straight parkway from New York City to the middle of Connecticut.

But the state had to drill a quarter mile tunnel to do it.

The West Rock palisades, which dominate New Haven, caused trouble from the start. The highway couldn't cut outside the cliff-that would take traffic too far from the city. It couldn't cut inside them either-the ground was swampy and the land was costly. The only choice was to cut right through them.

Workmen began the job in March, 1948. For a year and a half they drilled and blasted, shovelled and hauled while irate motorists detoured through the red lights, trolley tracks, and back alleys of New Haven.

The completed tunnel consists of two tubes, each high enough for a trailer truck and two lanes wide. Pavements are concrete and are flanked on each side by emergency walks.

The builders of Connecticut's first auto tunnel have thought of everything. They have wired 300-watt bulbs to the roof, and spaced them closer near the entrance, so motorists eyes can adjust slowly from the daylight.

They have installed traffic lights and fire extinguishers all along the tube. When you pull an extinguisher from a wall niche, all the lights turn yellow.

Out Goes the Bad Air

For ventilation they have built two man-size fans, controlled by carbon monoxide detectors, air analyzers, and ink recorders. The ventilating chimney to the surface was one of the hardest parts of the job.

The tunnel cost $2 million-almost as much as Lamont Library-but it was only part of the job.

It has taken 10 years and 69 contracts to complete just the Milford Meriden section of the Wilbur Cross, and almost two decades to bring the Connecticut parkway system to its present state, stretching from the southern border to the town of Vernon.

Yesterday the whole 90-mile system was opened to traffic, and the State Highway Commission has promised to extend the route to the Massachusetts border.

And best of all, nobody-but nobody-ever has to go near Yale again.