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Laurel Hill Tunnel
Facts
- Overview
- Tunnel on Abandoned alignment of Pennsylvania Turnpike
- Location
- Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and Somerset County, Pennsylvania
- Status
- Currently used to test racecar aerodynamics by Chip Ganassi Racing. Closed to the public.
- History
- Begun c.1885 by S. Pennsylvania RR; completed 1940 by Penna. Tpk. Comm.; bypassed and abandoned in 1964
- Builder
- - Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission
- Railroad
- - South Pennsylvania Railroad
- Design
- Tunnel
- Dimensions
-
Total length: 4,541.0 ft. (0.9 mi.)
Vertical clearance above deck: 13.5 ft.
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +40.09730, -79.22130 (decimal degrees)
40°05'50" N, 79°13'17" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 17/651617/4440072 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Bakersville
- Elevation
- 2775 ft. above sea level
- Inventory number
- BH 37606 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- August 26, 2014: Updated by Luke: Added link to info about what Chip Ganassi Racing does at the tunnel
- September 14, 2010: Updated by Ed Hollowell: Indicated reuse of tunnel for auto testing.
- August 15, 2009: Updated by Greg Hall: added GPS coordinates
- October 13, 2008: Added by Rick Mattioni
Sources
- Rick Mattioni
- Greg Hall - cyclebay [at] aol [dot] com
- Ed Hollowell - erhollowell [at] aol [dot] com
- Luke
- Racecar Engineering - Info on reuse
- The secret racing test tunnel no one wants to talk about - 2015 article in Road & Track on tunnel's reuse
© Copyright 2021, Historic Bridge Foundation and contributors.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/pa/westmoreland/laurel-hill-tunnel/
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/pa/westmoreland/laurel-hill-tunnel/
knupps tunnel was south penns name for laurel hill. my grandpa s uncle was a stone mason at sp tunnel and worked at quarry by west portal.went to work one day and was told to go home job was done lost 2 wks pay south penn built 3 piers on top of tunnel used to survey tunnel rt turnpike recapped them and reused them still there today grandpap surveyed for ptc they were cementing tunnel roof west portal and it caved in killing and trapping several men. also have a news story about a cavein at knupps tunnel5-28-1884 that killed 9 Italian labors