Ole Singstad
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Ole Singstad (June 29, 1882 – December 8, 1969) was a Norwegian-American civil engineer, who pioneered underwater vehicular tunnels, notably designing the novel ventilation system for the Holland Tunnel.
Born at Singstad farm in Lensvik (now Agdenes) in Sør-Trøndelag, Norway, Singstad was educated at the Trondheim Tekniske Læreanstalt, and in 1905 he emigrated to the USA.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Early work
In the US, he first worked the Central Railroad of New Jersey. In 1907, he moved to Norfolk, Virgina, where he worked on railroads and bridges for the Virginian Railway. He returned to New York and worked at the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, designing tunnels under the Hudson River in 1909-1910, and later spent seven years in charge of work on subways and rail tunnels in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and under the East River. During this time he worked with Clifford Holland for the Public Service Commission of the first district of New York.
In 1917-1918, Singstad worked at the Chile Exploration Company, and in 1918-1919 he worked with Barclay, Parsons, and Klapp (now Parsons Brinckerhoff), where he was in charge of designing a rapid-transit system for Philadelphia, and made preliminary designs for a vehicular tunnel under the Delaware River.[1]
[edit] NYC tunnels
He is most known for designing all the underwater road tunnels in New York City, and for designing the novel ventilation system that made long underwater road tunnels possible, first used in the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River.
He began working for Holland in 1915,[2] and he finished building the Holland Tunnel after the death of Holland and of Holland's successor Milton H. Freeman. He also designed the Lincoln Tunnel, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, the latter two as chief engineer of the New York City Tunnel Authority, in which capacity he clashed with Robert Moses, who preferred bridges:
| “ | Why did Moses try to wreck (the Tunnel Authority)? Because he couldn't take it over, that's why. He couldn't take it over so he wanted to wreck the whole damned project. | ” |
In 1946, the Tunnel Authority was merged with (rather, taken over by) the Triborough Bridge Authority, forming the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, whereupon Singstad was fired, and the incomplete Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel was finished to Moses's specifications. This new design leaked, and the TBTA fixed the leaks by reverting to Singstad's original design.
[edit] Later work
Singstad was instrumental in other early underwater vehicular tunnels in the US:
- He consulted on the Posey Tube, the second one, which used the same ventilation system that he had designed for the Holland Tunnel.
- He consulted on the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel, the third one, designed by fellow Norwegian-American engineer Søren Anton Thoresen, and designed the ventilation system.[3]
With Thoresen, he designed the Waasland tunnel under the river Scheldt in Antwerp, Belgium. On this project, Singstad designed the lining, the tunnel shield, the ventilation, and the equipment.[3]
In 1945, he established the company Singstad and Kehart Consulting Engineers. This firm did the final design of The Big Walker Mountain Tunnel in Virginia. Ole Singstad also built tunnels in Argentina, Canada, Cuba, and Venezuela.
[edit] Family
Ole Singstad married Else Johansen (Danish), with whom he had two children, Rita and Paul.
[edit] Honors
He and Thoresen were decorated by King Albert I of Belgium for their work on the Waasland tunnel, receiving gold medals.
A wooden statue has been erected in his honor at Lensvik Samfunnshus,[4] and in 2008, a lecture in his honor was held at the Museum of Modern Art.[5]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Bjork, Kenneth (1947), Saga in Steel and Concrete: Norwegian Engineers in America, <http://www.naha.stolaf.edu/>
- Saga in Steel and Concrete is posted in sections at: Norway-L archives 2003-04 Norway-L archives 2003-05
