Dec. 19—bluefield — Fifty years ago this Friday, around 500 people braved frigid temperatures to celebrate the opening of an engineering marvel that cuts through a mountain and makes travel easier between the two Virginias and across the eastern United States.
The mile-long East River Mountain Tunnel on Interstate 77 opened on Dec. 20, 1974 after five years, four months and 13 days of work. The total project cost, including design, right-of-way acquisition, construction of the tunnels, portal buildings, electrical systems and ventilation systems was $37 million.
The East River Mountain Tunnel was the latest marvel of highway engineering linking Virginia and West Virginia.
Two years earlier and 20 miles south of the East River Mountain Tunnel, the openings of 11.4 miles of I-77 between Wytheville, Va. and Bland, Va. and the Big Walker Mountain Tunnel were celebrated on June 29, 1972.
“Each I-77 mountain tunnel took about five years to construct and were some of the largest highway construction contracts awarded by the state in the late 1960s,” said VDOT Bristol District Engineer Tabitha Crowder, P.E. “The opening of East River Mountain Tunnel cut the drive between the West Virginia state line and Wytheville by half.”
The prime contractors on the East River Mountain Tunnel project were Gordon H. Ball Inc. of Danville, California and S.A. Healy Company of McCook, Illinois.
The East River Mountain Tunnel is 5,654 feet long with 54% of it in Virginia and 46% in West Virginia. The tunnel is jointly owned and financed by Virginia and West Virginia. West Virginia oversaw the tunnel construction and Virginia oversees the day-to-day operations.
In 2024, a project to replace lighting in the northeast quadrant of the tunnel began, VDOT officials said. The lighting was damaged during a tractor-trailer fire inside the tunnel during the summer of 2014. Work is anticipated to wrap up in next spring on that project. It is being funded through VDOT’s Special Structures Program and is valued at $3.7 million.
A second VDOT Special Structures funded project, valued at $6 million, is currently being designed and will automate many of the processes currently performed manually in the tunnel. The installation of a modern system will allow tunnel staff to focus on first responders’ duties and will greatly minimize human error during an emergency, VDOT officials said.
Around 11.3 million vehicles drive through East River Mountain Tunnel annually, according to VDOT. Interstate 77 provides an important north-south transportation link, connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
The East River Mountain Tunnel’s importance was demonstrated on July 24, 2014 when a tractor-trailer caught fire in its northbound lane. The entire tunnel was evacuated and thick black smoke was soon pouring from it. Multiple fire departments fought the blaze for hours and had to deal with the toxic smoke and zero visibility. After the fire was extinguished, handprints on the tunnel’s walls showed where firefighters guided themselves in the darkness.
Both lanes of I-77 had to be closed and Virginia State Police closed I-77 northbound at I-81 in Wytheville, Va. and southbound traffic was diverted. The tunnel fire disrupted traffic flow as far away as North Carolina and led to detours. Tractor-trailers attempting to cross East River Mountain to U.S. Route 460 became stuck, leading to more traffic delays.
When construction workers tunneling from Virginia and West Virginia met in the East River Mountain Tunnel, the late photographer Mel Grubb of Bluefield, known for his aerial photography and his photographs of underground coal mining operations, was present when workers made the final breakthrough inside the mountain and photographed the historic event. Every day, thousands of vehicles pass through the place where history was made.
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com