Student Takes on Lowry Tunnel Air Quality

While the interest of most Minnesotans is glued to the area where the I-35W bridge collapsed a few weeks ago, J. Girard Griggs is concerned about what's happening just down the road from there.

His focus? The I-94 Lowry Tunnel, one of the most heavily traveled freeway segments in the state.

Griggs, an environmental health sciences student and mechanical engineer, is launching a study to analyze the tunnel's air quality. He plans to share his findings with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the agency responsible for monitoring the tunnel.

When the Lowry Tunnel was built in the 1970s, carbon monoxide (CO) emissions were a top concern. Engineers equipped the tunnel with CO sensors and massive fans that turn on if levels reach dangerous levels. But the equipment monitors CO levels only--failing to account for a host of other pollutants emitted by vehicles.

Griggs will study levels of these other pollutants, including BTEX compounds, which are known to have major effects on the central nervous system. He's sampling air at peak rush hours, when traffic often comes to a standstill in the quarter-mile tunnel.

"Additional air quality rules haven't been applied here. Tunnels aren't typically classified as confined spaces," says Griggs. "But at times they present inhalation hazards similar to confined spaces."

Since this is the first comprehensive study of its kind, Griggs isn't sure what he will find. But he believes the tunnel workers and thousands of commuters should know more about what they're being exposed to daily.

"Good news or bad, the information should be out there," he says.