Pitkin Tunnel

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The Pitkin Tunnel or Pitkin Street Tunnel is a below-ground-level, roofed but not entirely enclosed roadway, in downtown New Haven, Connecticut, United States. It accommodates simultaneous motor vehicle traffic in both directions. The tunnel joins the eastbound one-way Elm Street, between Church and Orange Streets, with the southbound lanes of State Steet, between Court and Chapel Streets, and passes under Orange Street between those two points. It runs under or next to the City Hall and the Federal Courthouse on Church Street, the local Emergency Operations Center, and at least three more buildings that house banks and the headquarters of United Illuminating, the electric utility serving much of the state.

The tunnel provides access to a parking garage and to loading docks; motorists with no interest in those facilities are reported to use the tunnel as a convenient route.

In 2003, the Federal Marshals and General Services Administration provided funds which were used to install surveillance cameras, gates for closing the tunnel, and booths to accommodate guards. As of 2005, the gates are open 16 hours a day, five days a week, with the only security personnel in the tunnel being occasional patrols by city police. The lack of guards to control access at those times has drawn attention of the state's news media.