Construction 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 of earth, and it was the first tunnel in the nation to have closed-circuit television monitoring. At the time, it was called "88 miles of miracle."
Turnpike upgrades
The turnpike became heavily used, and by 1976, upgrades to the Turnpike from two-lanes to four-lanes had commenced; by 1983 all but the Memorial Tunnel had been completed. The remaining 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.
Bypassed
Instead of upgrading and expanding the tunnel, a bypass was constructed going around both the tunnel and the Bender Bridge over Paint Creek. Costing $35 million to complete, of earth were removed in addition to 300,000 tons of coal being removed from the mountain. The last vehicle would pass through the tunnel on July 7, 1987, and it would subsequently close for use for pass-through vehicular traffic.
Alternate use
Between 1992 and 1995, the Department of Transportation entered a deal with the state to utilize the abandoned tunnel for smoke, fire and ventilation experiments. These experiments were carried out to design better developed ventilation systems for the tunnels being constructed as part of the Big Dig in Boston; the results of the tests were also incorporated into the design of the Channel Tunnel. These experiments also resulted in the Federal Highway Administration allowing jet fans for ventilation in tunnel construction, which was a significant change to their original ventilation designs. The lasting legacy of the Memorial Tunnel Fire Test Program is in both changes in ceilings materials used in tunnel construction as well in the approved use of jet fans for ventilation during construction. By 2000, the tunnel had been selected as the location where the Center for National Response would conduct anti-terrorism training exercises. The current facilities offered in the center include:
Groups from around the country are sending personnel to West Virginia to train in the facility. In all, about 160,000 first responders have been trained by West Virginians.
