Broadway Tunnel (San Francisco)

Early plans

Abner Doble (grandfather of the namesake who would go on to build steam-powered cars) and his associates in the Folsom St. and Fort Point Railroad and Tunnel Co. were granted "the right to construct a tunnel through Russian Hill, on the line of Broadway, from Mason to Hyde or Larkin" by the California State Assembly on April 22, 1863.^{[1]:414 [2][3]}

Fifty years later, Bion J. Arnold submitted a report to the City of San Francisco in March 1913, calling for a tunnel on Broadway to supplement the Stockton Street Tunnel, which was already under construction.^[1] The general route of a tunnel for Broadway was described in April 1913, extending from Mason to Larkin.^[4] A landowner protested against the proposed tunnel, calling it "absolutely as unnecessary as a bridge to the moon."^[5] Also in 1913, a railway tunnel was proposed for Broadway as part of an extension for the Municipal Railway to carry passengers to and from the Panama-Pacific Exposition.^[6] Arnold's proposal called for a combined rail and road tunnel with a single arch for Broadway through Russian Hill, 2,338 feet (713 m) long and 60 feet (18 m) wide, carrying two tracks each 11 feet (3.4 m) wide; three lanes of traffic 24 feet (7.3 m) wide in total; and two sidewalks each 7 feet (2.1 m) wide..^{[1]:220;222–224}

Plans were elaborated in brief by City Engineer M.M. O'Shaughnessy as one of ten potential tunnel projects in San Francisco at the October 1917 meeting for the San Francisco Association of the members of the American Society of Civil Engineers. O'Shaughnessy proposed a 2,300-foot (700 m) long bore, but the article reporting the meeting described it as merely "investigated and not likely to be soon built."^[7]

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Robert C Levy (Broadway) Tunnel in San Francisco 1 Western portal 2 Eastern portal

Construction

In 1948, voters in the City of San Francisco passed a $5 million bond measure (equivalent to $41 million in 2016) to fund the construction of the Broadway Tunnel.^[8] Site preparations, including the move of an apartment building from 1453 Mason to Vallejo Street,^[9] were underway by October 1949, and the construction contract was anticipated to be bid in January 1950.^[10] In February, Morrison-Knudsen was awarded the contract after submitting the low bid of $5,243,355^[11] and construction began in May 1950.^[12] The final cost was some $7,300,000.^[13]

Completion was originally projected for May 1952, but unanticipated loose rock meant that shoring was required.^[14] The tunnel opened to traffic on December 21, 1952.^[13] Mayor Elmer Robinson cut a ceremonial ribbon to mark the occasion.^[12]

Dedication and later years

Dedication plaque

The Broadway Tunnel was named in honor of Robert C. Levy (1921-1985) in January 1986. Mr. Levy was the City Engineer and Superintendent of Building Inspection for the City and County of San Francisco. A plaque outside the tunnel reads, "He devoted his life to high standards of professionalism in engineering and to the City which he loved."

Public art and architecture

A stylized dragon relief sculpture by Patti Bowler, rendered in bronze, has been mounted above the eastern portal of the tunnel since 1969.^[17][18] The building atop the eastern portal is the Chinatown Public Health Center (Chinese: 華埠公共衛生局), a public health clinic operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health.^[19] It was built in the 1970s and remodeled in 2010.^[20]

Reverse graffiti by Moose in 2008

In 2008, the artist Moose, sponsored by the company Green Works, executed a 140-foot (43 m) long mural by cleaning dirt from the side of the approach to the western portal of the tunnel using pressure washing and cardboard stencils, a technique known as reverse graffiti.^[21]