Tunnels

CloudIndustryAcademy · Wed Mar 07, 2012 12:59 pm

Hey I kinda searched for this kind of topic but nothing really came up. I'm interested in photographing tunnels around Omaha. I know they exist just want some info on where they are and how to get to them.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:13 pm

I've been looking for some decent tunnels as well around here for a different project. Haven't found anything much yet though!

Bob from Omaha · Post by **Bob from Omaha** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:19 pm

when i was a kid we used to go to elmwood park. there was a tunnel under dodge.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 1:47 pm

Bob from Omaha wrote:when i was a kid we used to go to elmwood park. there was a tunnel under dodge.

There is a tunnel underneath dodge at about 51st street.

CloudIndustryAcademy · Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:21 pm

cool ill check that out.

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:21 pm

This subject kind of caught my interest so I have been looking around online. People were stating that there is a tunnel connecting the Orpheum to the Brandeis building, as well as tunnels that connect to Omaha Central from other locations.

iamjacobm · Post by **iamjacobm** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:25 pm

I know a few people said they had walked through really long tunnels at Memorial Park. I never saw them for real though.

almighty_tuna · Post by **almighty_tuna** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:26 pm

What about car-sized tunnels?

Post by **Brad** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:29 pm

almighty_tuna wrote:What about car-sized tunnels?

The dodge street bridge over saddle creek kind of looks like a tunnel?

The 50th street Tunnel under the railroad tracks.

l-dude · Post by **l-dude** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:42 pm

I'm going to avoid the other tunnel connotations you might read on here.
In the UNO, Elmwood park area, check out the pedestrian tunnel next to the Elmwood Park Grotto, which is just southeast of the park Pavillion (east side of the park, about a block (walking distance) south of the swimming pool). The UP RR underpasses on 7th, 13th and 14th streets (esp. 7th & 13th...by the main P.O. downtown) are somewhat tunnel-like. Some of the storm water outfall culverts along the Mo. riverfront (not in the immediate downtown area) are quite large and tunnel-like, but don't do any sight seeing until late summer, or during/after rainstorms, as these will carry water the rest of the year (also no "light at the end of the tunnel" effect). These are the only ones I can recollect at this time.
A couple of other good examples are now gone....the "crime zone" pedestrian tunnel under the 52nd & N.W. Radial intersection, south of Benson High (filled in recently by the city due to it's bad rep) and the most well known ex tunnel of them all, the two lane 84th Street tunnel under the UP RR main line, just south of the I-80 interchange, probably the most old world, mountain pass-like tunnel there was in the city at that time.

bigredmed · Post by **bigredmed** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:45 pm

The UP over pass over 120th used to be a cool tunnel. Most car tunnels are history in Omaha.

S33 · Post by **S33** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 3:50 pm

The only thing I could think of in Omaha worth noting are the massive drainage tunnels in midtown, which seems to be hotspots for "urban explorers". I do hear that there is a really cool abandoned train tunnel about 750' long in Dawes County, Northwest Nebraska. Close to the ghost town of Belmont.

l-dude · Post by **l-dude** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:11 pm

Linkin5 wrote:This subject kind of caught my interest so I have been looking around online. People were stating that there is a tunnel connecting the Orpheum to the Brandeis building, as well as tunnels that connect to Omaha Central from other locations.

At one time (through the 60's anyway) all the building basements on the west side of 16th from almost Howard to north of Dodge were connected, including under the cross streets, Harney, Farnam, Douglas & Dodge. I don't remember a tunnel under 16th to the City National Bank Building (Orpheum), but there could have been. Also in Downtown currently, the under Dodge St. pedestrian tunnel from the parking garage at 13th to the UP Headquarters building between 14th and 15th on Dodge (but I don't know if this is open to the Public).

Brad, I forgot the 50th Street UP underpass! Is that still only 2 lanes?

Post by **Brad** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:14 pm

l-dude wrote:Brad, I forgot the 50th Street UP underpass! Is that still only 2 lanes?

Yes, still there. Back in the day there was at least 3 of them. 50th, 84th and 120th.

Post by **Brad** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:17 pm

From the Mangelsens Website:

GetUrban · Post by **GetUrban** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 11:54 pm

iamjacobm wrote:I know a few people said they had walked through really long tunnels at Memorial Park. I never saw them for real though.

There are huge storm drainage tunnels under Dodge from the creek at the southeast corner of the Memorial park connecting to the creek south of Dodge, and also from the smaller creek between St. Margaret Mary's and Memorial park to the creek south of Dodge. There is also an even longer one on the south end of Elmwood park going under Pacific street under part of the former Aksarben area, connecting into the little Papio creek. My friends & I used to explore those as kids. The Aksarben one was long enough that you couldn't see the end until you were more than midway through. After heavy rains they fill up pretty quick.

Uffda · Post by **Uffda** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:08 am

There is a small walking tunnel that goes under the street in my neighborhood.... Villages of Glenbrook - 78th & Sorensen

S33 · Post by **S33** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:37 am

There is a little tunnel on the knolls golf course going under 108th street. Got a golf cart stuck in there once, so I remember it vividly.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:49 am

S33 wrote:There is a little tunnel on the knolls golf course going under 108th street. Got a golf cart stuck in there once, so I remember it vividly.

How many beers were involved in that?

Post by **BRoss** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:00 am

There are four under Eagle Run Dr running through Champions.

S33 · Post by **S33** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:50 am

Brad wrote:
S33 wrote:There is a little tunnel on the knolls golf course going under 108th street. Got a golf cart stuck in there once, so I remember it vividly.
How many beers were involved in that?

There were beers. But I think it was mainly motivated by the scene in Austin Powers where he gets his cart stuck in the hallway of his underground lair. :)

GetUrban · Post by **GetUrban** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:46 pm

S33 wrote:
Brad wrote:
S33 wrote:There is a little tunnel on the knolls golf course going under 108th street. Got a golf cart stuck in there once, so I remember it vividly.
How many beers were involved in that?
There were beers. But I think it was mainly motivated by the scene in Austin Powers where he gets his cart stuck in the hallway of his underground lair. :)

Oh, so you were trying to turn around in the tunnel? :D

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 12:51 pm

I wouldn't necessarily call them "tunnels", but yes, there are basement level passageways connecting many of the downtown buildings. I believe that you can get from all the way up by the First National data center (north of Capitol), down through the old First National tower/Doubletree, to the main First National Tower Building. From there, I believe there are also connectors south to the Brandeis, and potentially further south. For security reasons, I believe that some of these are First National restricted keycard access... My wife, who works in the tower, has about a 10 minute walk to her car, without ever going outside...

While not pedestrian friendly, I'm fairly sure there are utility tunnels connecting practically all buildings downtown, as they're almost all served by the ESC steam generating facilities in North Downtown and southwest of downtown.

S33 · Post by **S33** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 1:59 pm

GetUrban wrote: Oh, so you were trying to turn around in the tunnel? :D

I think so, honestly don't remember totally, it was some years ago. lol

CloudIndustryAcademy · Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:04 pm

thanks for the heads up. sound like ill have some exploring to do

derog · Post by **derog** » Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:44 pm

Ben wrote:I wouldn't necessarily call them "tunnels", but yes, there are basement level passageways connecting many of the downtown buildings. I believe that you can get from all the way up by the First National data center (north of Capitol), down through the old First National tower/Doubletree, to the main First National Tower Building. From there, I believe there are also connectors south to the Brandeis, and potentially further south. For security reasons, I believe that some of these are First National restricted keycard access... My wife, who works in the tower, has about a 10 minute walk to her car, without ever going outside...

While not pedestrian friendly, I'm fairly sure there are utility tunnels connecting practically all buildings downtown, as they're almost all served by the ESC steam generating facilities in North Downtown and southwest of downtown.

I took a screenshot and drew out some tunnels that are in downtown. New tunnels, not cool old tunnels, but still cool.

bbinks · Post by **bbinks** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 4:16 pm

The creepy one was on 120th near "L" before it was torn out and widened.

Post by **Brad** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:16 am

bbinks wrote:The creepy one was on 120th near "L" before it was torn out and widened.

It was the same as the one currently on 50th and the one that was at 84th back in the day. They were all built at the same time in 1908 when the Lane Cutoff was built. Here are some photos of them building the Lane Cutoff near 84th Street http://www.up150.com/timeline Click on the 1908 tab.

FrontlineOmaha · Post by **FrontlineOmaha** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 10:07 am

There is a tunnel connecting the OWH Press building to their warehouse across the street...Its actually pretty cool, they have a robot that runs back and forth bringing them paper to load onto the presses. Pretty cool if you have never been down there.

Asten · Post by **Asten** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 5:33 pm

Brad wrote:
l-dude wrote:Brad, I forgot the 50th Street UP underpass! Is that still only 2 lanes?
Yes, still there. Back in the day there was at least 3 of them. 50th, 84th and 120th.

144th as well - was a very narrow 2 lane tunnel. I grew up in the neighborhood next to it. They dynamited it when they were rebuilding 144th as Oak View was being build - around 1990 - on a Sunday morning. Cracked dozens of windows in our neighborhood.

l-dude · Post by **l-dude** » Thu Jun 12, 2014 7:23 am

As one who participated in this (semi) flashback blog... (me = Omaha, late 50's & 60's) I appreciate your interest/comment, especially since I'm also no longer in the big o. Comment as often as you can as this group is mostly younger than my generation.

Post by **BRoss** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 8:51 pm

Came across this today. It appears there are some tunnels underneath UNO:
[BBvideo 560,340][/BBvideo]

bigredmed · Post by **bigredmed** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 12:37 pm

In Lincoln, UNL had a system of walkable tunnels that connected to a few crawlable tunnels off the sides. These would go from the State Capitol building all the way north to Harper-Schram-Smith dorm complex. It was fun walking around city campus. We popped out of one tunnel into Memorial Field and played a few downs.

Bugeater · Post by **Bugeater** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:44 pm

Brad wrote:
bbinks wrote:The creepy one was on 120th near "L" before it was torn out and widened.
It was the same as the one currently on 50th and the one that was at 84th back in the day. They were all built at the same time in 1908 when the Lane Cutoff was built. Here are some photos of them building the Lane Cutoff near 84th Street http://www.up150.com/timeline Click on the 1908 tab.

Whoa...I had no idea there were steel trestles underneath all the dirt along that stretch. That is trippy.

bigredmed · Post by **bigredmed** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 5:52 am

The Bostwick Frohardt collection has some photos of the trains with dirt that the UP used to dump dirt through the track in order to pile up the Lane Cutoff.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 9:01 am

bigredmed wrote:The Bostwick Frohardt collection has some photos of the trains with dirt that the UP used to dump dirt through the track in order to pile up the Lane Cutoff.

Bugeater · Post by **Bugeater** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 12:35 pm

Or is that wood structure? And if so, how has it not rotted out after 100 years?

Post by **Brad** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 1:40 pm

Bugeater wrote:Or is that wood structure? And if so, how has it not rotted out after 100 years?

I am sure 95% of it is gone, but you still see a piece here and there. The wood wasn't ever meant to be permanent.

Bugeater · Post by **Bugeater** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:54 pm

Brad wrote:
Bugeater wrote:Or is that wood structure? And if so, how has it not rotted out after 100 years?
I am sure 95% of it is gone, but you still see a piece here and there. The wood wasn't ever meant to be permanent.

Ah, I gotcha. I suppose by the time the wood had deteriorated the dirt was stable enough to support the massive weight of the trains. I imagine they had to add to it quite a bit over the initial years as it settled. Fascinating stuff.

Post by **Brad** » Thu Jul 10, 2014 11:38 pm

You know... That make me wonder....

Today when we design anything, maximum lifts are 8 inches.... I wonder how they handled all this dirt at once?

However when they did it, this bridge was only for fill dirt. When the line opened, it was double tracked, this bridge was single track. I am guessing when the embankment was built,the top of the bridge was removed and the final grade was established and the double track was laid.