Ten years after H-3 opened, the twin-bore tunnels and freeway remain a state-of-the-art facility that will be featured on "Modern Marvels" on the History Channel on Jan. 28.

Among its bells and whistles are things few, if any, tunnels in the United States have, including an 8-foot shoulder for emergency use, segmental viaducts that reduce the number of concrete pillars visible to the public, a third tunnel used for maintenance and evacuation, an operation center and a redundant electrical system that could be used in an emergency to provide power to Kane'ohe, officials said.

"I don't think there's any tunnel like this," said Stan Kawaguchi, who worked on the project from 1976 to 2003 and was involved with planning, lobbying for funds, legal challenges and construction for contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas Inc.

The anniversary of the opening passed quietly with a tour of the tunnel for the media yesterday.

The project was authorized in 1960 but didn't get under way until about 1972 with planning and legal issues ironed out by 1986.

Construction lasted about 10 years and cost $1.3 billion.

The freeway opened Dec. 12, 1997, and has shifted even more traffic than anticipated from the other two trans-Ko'olau tunnels, Kawaguchi said.

"It's great to see it open, great to see it used and even greater to see it exceeded our expectations," he said.

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