The channel's low bridges prevented the tunnel sections from being built off-site, and floated in.
Engineers warned Salvucci the problem seemed insurmountable.
You know, my first reaction was,
'We've done an environmental impact statement.
You did the analysis that said this was the right way to do it.
We've gotten all our approvals.
We've got our financing.
And now you come and say you don't know how to build it!
You know, that's just unacceptable!
You have to solve this problem!'
And it seemed like about two weeks later,
Lou Silano comes in with this brilliant solution,
which is essentially like building a ship in a bottle.
Silano proposed digging a basin on the bank of the channel
and using it to construct tunnel sections.
Once built, the basin could be flooded,
and the sections launched into the channel.
But because of their huge size, they could not be built all at once.
You have to realize that these tunnels
are maybe 90 feet wide and 40 feet deep and 300 feet long.
So, they're big monsters! They're not small.
And that always presented a problem
because I couldn't get all the tubes cast in one shot.
But the idea was appreciated by Fred
because now we had a way of putting in a tunnel.