Tunnel under Lake Michigan???

Question

I-90 and I-94 are two east - west routes through Chicago. The two interstates runs much farther north than Chicago. With Lake Michigan in the way, the two roads must wrap around the south side of the lake. Is it possible to merge the two roads in Michigan with a tunnel to Wisconsin. It would save on driving time by bypassing The Windy. Chicago's traffic would decrease. Some critics has called Chicago's traffic "the worst in the world". Could the tunnel be realistic?

Answer 1

Slowpoke, I LIKE THE WAY YOU THINK!!! They said the Panama canal couldn't be done,Orville & Wilber were told that if MAN were meant to fly, GOD would have given us wings. Henry Ford was told by countless engineers that it is impossible to cast a one piece V8 block(he fired every engineer that said that till he got a few to agree that they would find a way and they did) Their is now a tunnel connecting France & England under the English Channel (also impossible) Hoover Dam, NoWay! I could go on and on but I think you get the idea.Cost factor figured in would be a major player. But ,hey ,look what just went into the "Big Dig " in Boston to alleviate traffic woes

Answer 2

The cost of doing the project would be huge. The issue of who among the states should fund it & how much would kill the project.

Current Interstate 90 would have to be relocated or would have to change names.

It would be difficult to find a place to put an access point on the Wisconsin side due to the location of Milwaukee and the surrounding areas.

There is the issue of the suitibility/strength of the soil on the bottom of the lake that would need to be addressed. The lake can have rather turbulent waves, so building a bridge across the lake wouldn't work either.

The length of the tunnel would be an issue (maintaining fresh air flow so that people in the tunnel don't die due to carbon monoxide poisoning).

Finally, there is little benefit to building the tunnel. There are other ways of dealing with traffic congestion in Chicago. State & Federal governments are having a difficult time funding transportation as it is. Hence the selling of state tollways to foreign companies.

Answer 3

i saw a documentary on this once. pretty interesting. - imagine if you will i long cement tunnel. (two cement side walls, the roof, and the floor). - now imagine that tunnel being broken up into segments of about 10 yards (9 meters) each. - with a boat they transport each of these segments to the area above where they want the tunnel to be. - they then lower each segment with a crane onto the bottom. each one connecting to the one behind it. then they seal all the gaps between each segment. - after they are done with aforementioned step, they basically have a water filled tunnel under the water. - now all you have to do is pump out all the water and viola! you have a tunnel. now there is of course a lot more engineering to it. but that is the gist of it

Answer 4

about as likely as a bridge OVER Lake Michigan. I think this is one of the headaches people will have to endure unless your travel WAY around Chicago. There are a couple ferrys that run across the lake, but they will take you as long as just driving around.

Answer 5

Absolutely not.

Lake Michigan is much too deep and Chicago is not that important. Transportation by car as we know it is soon to become obsolete and the U.S. is so much in debt that our economy is soon going to crash and burn. Just look at what happened today with the Dow Jones index. All the signs are there, you just have to pay attention. It'll be funny when it happens, most Americans are going to be quite surprised.

Answer 6

If it were realistic, it would have been done already.