As many who travel HWY 58 in Oregon have discovered, if you need to go through the tunnel it will take you about a half-an-hour to 45 minutes longer to get to your destination. Because you will be stuck in a waiting line. That is if you are traveling during the day. If you are planning on driving through on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening, the tunnel is closed for construction all night long. In that case, you have a big and long detour in front of you.
At first, I hoped that maybe, just maybe, I would have a cell phone connection, but of course the mountains effectively blocked that. The radio worked fine, so I turned it up. The windows worked fine, so I rolled them down.
I cleaned up some of my mess within easy reach and then took out my camera. Of course!
From the open windows, I began to take pictures of my surroundings. It is always pretty up on the mountain pass, no matter what the season.
For those who are regular readers, you know that I love searching for nature faces.
I can never get enough pictures of trees. And once I got inside the tunnel, I thought, well why not? I was on the advanced sports shooting camera setting and there was a lot of light inside. This is what they are working on, they are laying down a whole new floor right now. There is a 12' lane between the new section of flooring and the side of the tunnel.
Look at all of that rebar. They are using concrete and building things up. Apparently, the via-ducts are shot, and so were the ceiling braces. The tunnel was originally completed in 1939, and it was in sorry shape.
Here is a close-up of the ceiling. Now tell me that you don't see any faces on it:
The construction people have been working on tunnel improvements since May of this year, and are hoping to have the job completed by the end of 2013. For more information, here is the official link "ODOT: Salt Creek Tunnel" Happy Travels!
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5 comments:
I can't stand long car journeys and I I think I'd have been seeing faces everywhere Kathy!
road trips are fun, but long car rides can be excruciating! I love the pictures you took :)
Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com
You are very lucky to live in such beautiful surroundings! Absolutely splendid!! Quite unlike our polders. It's not that they are ugly but they sure are different...
Greetings from the low countries.
Here our tunnels go under the river. Nothing weirder than being IN the tunnel and seeing a drop of water hit the windshield.
Kathy, only you could make me enjoy an annoying highway delay. Great pics of Oregon. My husband gets to go visit his mother there next week, unfortunately I am staying home. :(
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