The Calgary Airport Trail Tunnel is a 620 meter (m) long, six-lane, two-cell roadway tunnel constructed under the Calgary International Airport’s new parallel runway and three associated taxiways. The tunnel is owned by The City of Calgary (The City) and is on land that is leased from the Calgary Airport Authority (YYC). It is part of a 1.4 kilometre (km) section of roadway being constructed for better network connectivity in the vicinity the airport. This project is related to the massive expansion project underway at the airport, including the terminal expansion and the new parallel runway. The tunnel is a cast-in-place, conventionally reinforced concrete rigid frame structure on spread footings with two spans of 17 m each. A cut-and-cover construction method was used and the design is based on a drained system. Life safety was an important element of to the design and included smoke and noxious gas exhaust and fire and smoke detection systems. The paper includes an overall explanation of the project with a layout of the tunnel, a crosssection, construction process, schedule, and roles and responsibilities. It discusses structural aspects such as design codes, structural analysis, aircraft loading, types of joints, durability considerations, waterproofing, and fire protection. Some of the project challenges are also highlighted, including the tight schedule, which was the main challenge for this project, loading considerations from the construction staging, assessment of the effects of conduits in the tunnel walls, cooling of the concrete, and assessment of temperature range in the tunnel.
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