Tunnel Design - Year 1, 2021

In this project, the tunnel considered for the Welland Canal would reside at Glendale Avenue and Welland Canals Parkway. I chose this site for several reasons. Firstly, there was a need to alleviate traffic where a vertical lift bridge stands. Although historical, the bridge consistently creates traffic problems compounded by a train route that cuts off Glendale Avenue closer to Merritton Street to the west. Secondly, the canal is relatively narrow at that site, and the land on both sides of the bridge would negate some of the costs associated with construction. Thirdly, road 89 or Glendale Avenue to the east and west would allow for the necessary decline, especially in the winter months, to allow car and bus traffic to travel safely. Finally, the construction materials would include concrete and flexible metamaterials - capsules that would allow expansion and contraction within the structure. The shifting system of interlocking materials would be illuminated inside the tunnel by a combination of bioluminescence and LED lighting, powered from some of the electricity already used by the vertical lift bridge.