Why does the rear of the building (the part that faces the highway ) have those things that look like large doors and the rail coming out of the top, right in the middle?
Why does the rear of the building (the part that faces the highway ) have those things that look like large doors and the rail coming out of the top, right in the middle?
In the quiz thread, I promised a full listing of the highway ventilation buildings in Boston. There are 13 ventilation buildings, one air intake, and three fan chambers. Images are from Street View, with a few of mine mixed in.
Ventilation Building 1 is on Dorchester Avenue next to Rolling Bridge Park. It is the west structure for the Fort Point Channel Tunnel.
View attachment 29137
Ventilation Building 3 is in fact the east core of the Intercontinental, on Atlantic Avenue at Pearl Street. It serves the Central Artery. No sign of its ventilation use is visible from ground level.
Ventilation Building 4 is at Haymarket Square and serves the Central Artery. The structure includes a parking garage, the RMV, the Boston Public Market, and the south headhouse of Haymarket station. Unlike Building 3, the vent stacks are clearly visible.
View attachment 29138
Ventilation Building 5 is on Summer Street opposite the BCEC, at the east end of the Fort Point Channel Tunnel.
View attachment 29139
Ventilation Building 6 is on Fid Kennedy Way at the south end of the Ted Williams Tunnel.
View attachment 29140
Ventilation Building 7 is on Harborside Drive at the north end of the Ted. It's the largest of these large structures - 380 feet long and 140 wide - and won a couple of design awards.
View attachment 29141
Ventilation Building 8 is tucked between the North Station platforms, the Leverett Circle Connector bridge, and the Zakim bridge and a southbound onramp.
View attachment 29142
Ventilation Building 10[url] is on North Street near the Boston end of the Sumner Tunnel.
View attachment 29143
Its twin, [url=https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3716348,-71.0411389,80m/data=!3m1!1e3]Ventilation Building 11, is on Liverpool Street in East Boston. (Liverpool Street, like several nearby streets, is named for the port city its docks once served ships to.)
View attachment 29144
Ventilation Building 12 is at North Street over the Boston portal of the Callahan Tunnel.
View attachment 29145
Its twin, Ventilation Building 13, is on Decatur Street in East Boston.
View attachment 29146
Though barely a thousand feet long, the City Square Tunnel (CANA) has two ventilation structures. Ventilation Building 14 is on New Rutherford Avenue adjacent to some ghost ramps.
View attachment 29147
Ventilation Building 15, at the corner of Warren and Chelsea, is designed to fit in with the nearby brick buildings.
View attachment 29148
The Dewey Square Air Intake is well known on this forum for the murals it hosts.
View attachment 29149
Three fan chambers date to the 1950s construction of the Dewey Square Tunnel; a fourth was located in Dewey Square until the Big Dig. The Essex Street Fan Chamber and Summer Street Fan Chamber flank Surface Road between their namesake streets,
View attachment 29150
The Beach Street Fan Chamber is adjacent to Chinatown Gate. It was wrapped with this artwork about a decade ago.
View attachment 29151
Some useful links:
Map of all CA/T facilities and structures
2021 inspection report with detailed list of facilities
Thanks so much! I guess it's a kind of survivorship bias that I forgot about these extremely well-hidden/aligned ones, while even the smaller Dewey Square Tunnel vents stick out like sore thumbs.Vent 3 in the intercontinental and 4 by the Public Market and Haymarket Headhouse/Garage