TODAY! 8th St. Tunnel Tour!

[kard]

How about a rehab into a wine bar or trendy restaurant. Wouldn't that be cool?

ski slope.

[PurplePapist]

I don't care what they do with this...but they gotta do something! When these sort of things are capitalized upon, they add an element of character to the entire urban core. 

But seriously...is there really any hope to this becoming anything??

[chadley]

I think St. Louis has tunnel under their downtown... and they run a commuter train through it.  Maybe a good idea for us. I am not sure where the 8th St Tunnel goes.

[midtown guy]

So, it looks like it's completely set up for tourists.  Who has done the work building platforms/walkways/stairs?  Who "hosted" the tour?  Where exactly was the entry point that you used to start the tour?  

I used to work right there at that park...I've always wanted to do that tour...

[drumatix]

As someone who hasn't toured the tunnel at all, and has only seen the pictures in this thread, I can picture a pretty cool subterranean bar being constructed in there. Anyone been to the O'Malley's Pub in Weston? It's underground with beautiful vaulted ceilings... a major point that gives it loads of character.

[kard]

keep in mind this thing is at a...what, 30 degree angle?  and has no access other than through the bottom of a parking garage.

sorry.  i'm debbie downer.  i know.

[KCKev]

keep in mind this thing is at a...what, 30 degree angle?  and has no access other than through the bottom of a parking garage.

sorry.  i'm debbie downer.  i know.

Perfect for raves!

[PumpkinStalker]

So, it looks like it's completely set up for tourists.  Who has done the work building platforms/walkways/stairs?  Who "hosted" the tour?  Where exactly was the entry point that you used to start the tour?  

I used to work right there at that park...I've always wanted to do that tour...

The tour guy is former state st. employee.  I have his business card, he said if he gets a group he will take them.  Sounds like a great promo for DNA or Crossroads Association.  I will check into Historic Kansas City Foundation doing something.  The ceiling drips constantly, and the bottom  tunnel has 3ft of mud.  The planks were put in back 2005, $50,000 for steel door and other impr_vements.  On cell phone internet until home from Nebraska so I will reply more details Monday.                                                  

[PumpkinStalker]

Angle of upper tunnel is 8.5 degrees.  Entry is under state street, in parking garage level P5         

[TheBigChuckbowski]

Perfect for raves!

vampire raves

[anniewarbucks]

Neat

[FangKC]

The upper portion near the entrance would be great for a beer garden -- a rathskellar.

[artistboy]

As someone who hasn't toured the tunnel at all, and has only seen the pictures in this thread, I can picture a pretty cool subterranean bar being constructed in there. Anyone been to the O'Malley's Pub in Weston? It's underground with beautiful vaulted ceilings... a major point that gives it loads of character.

It's great that this place isn't completely out of touch from the public. As for Weston, I think O'Malley's is larger. The third and lowest vault is tall enough to host a second floor balcony. It's a VERY cool space, but I don't know if the 8th street tunnel would work quite the same. It would make a great place for the start/base of a Kansas City transit museum though... tunnel tour included.

[FangKC]

If we can ever get the West Loop freeway moved further down at the bottom of the bluff, we can open back up the west entrance to the tunnel.   Then we can turn the former freeway decks into a pedestrian-oriented hill-side village with a narrow street running through it.

St. Joseph Hospital used to be on Pennsylvania between 7th and 8th streets, and it had stairs to the trolley tunnel.





I've made the West Loop Hill-side Village concept today's "Headlines I'd Like to See" thread.

http://forum.kcrag.com/index.php/topic, ... #msg279828

[Pendleton Heights Person]

Please, please, PLEASE post when/if there is another tour. I'd love to go! And if KC could incorporate the tunnel into a regular tour of downtown, it would add so much character to what's going on there; historians and urban geeks-of which I am one-dig this stuff. Thanks for the pics!

[PumpkinStalker]

As cool as it would be, this will never, ever, EVER house any kind of retail.  O'Malley's works because of one key thing...it's DRY.  This place is constantly moist.  It's basically a cave, water seeps through the brick and mortar forming stalactites and mites.  One was like a soda straw and was over 4 feet long from the ceiling!  And there are fairly high concentrations of fungus and mold in it.

In some of the photos I posted, you can see big slabs of concrete on the floor of the tunnel on which the decking sits.  Below these slabs is a concrete base.  This concrete base is actually the CEILING for the second tunnel which was bored underneath the original.  On this concrete base are mud piles and a constant steady stream of water.  I just don't ever see this being feasible.  If you completely seal it up and make it water tight, the tunnel can't breathe through the walls.  Problem with this is water builds up on the outside of the tunnel wall.  After years, the wall can implode if the pressure is not relieved.  The engineers that originally explored this for structural stability found many of these dangerous pockets and had to drill into the walls to release the water build-up.  I just don't EVER see this feasible as a restaurant/retail place.  As a stop on a fantastic tour of KC History, I definitely think it should be.  This is tough right now too, since the entrance is in the garage of the State Street building.

Anyway, we can all go to the downtown library and pull the vertical file on the tunnel, so I won't post stuff you can easily research yourself.  I will give you some interesting things from the tour though.

The cable to the original tunnel was $400,000 and was about the diameter of a cheeseburger.  It wore out every three months and had to be replaced.  It took a week to replace, all of this time the tunnel out of service.  Because of this and the hazards of such a steep incline, they bored a second tunnel that was at a lesser angle and less stress on the cables.

In the 30s they used it as a mushroom growing facility because of its constant temperature and humidity.  In order to grow them, you had to move air in and out and this smelled up the area on street level.  People complained and no more mushroom growing!

It was taken out of commission as trolley service in 1956.

When the original decks were put in the tunnel after it was discovered, they were CCA treated wood.  In the tunnel environment, these were rotted and had to be replaced in 5 years.  DST/State Street then spent $50,000 (according to tour guide) replacing the decking with the new plastic-y fiber boards that can't rot.

When Capital Electric was looking at the tunnel, they hot wired the lightbulbs that were hanging in the tunnel, and they actually lit up and glowed a bright reddish orange...over 60 years old.

I do have the business card for the guy that gave us the tour, and I asked if I were to get a group together if he will give special tours and he said yes, as long as there is interest he will do them.

I stayed for almost the entire time from 11:00 to 1:30 and I estimate about 100 people came to see the tunnel.  Not bad for a "forgotten" piece of history eh?

[Sportster]

Awesome! Absolutely awesome. I'm curious. Where was the tunnel's western egress in today's standards. I'm thinking its somewhere under the concrete of the west part of the downtown loop. (the old Kersey Coates Drive)

Sportster
...gotta go spelunking sometime!

[FangKC]

West Loop/Kersey Coates Drive

[PumpkinStalker]

In my last post I said the cable cost $400,000.  I know that is what the tour guide said, but the brochure they gave us on the history of the tunnel says $4,000.  I'm not sure what the dollar was worth back then, maybe the tour guide converted it to today's dollars...

Otherwise, a fact is wrong somewhere...

[anniewarbucks]

Maybe a Typo in the brochure.