As workers began dismantling a traffic tunnel 90 feet below the Houston Ship Channel, one man claims he saw a ghost.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Washburn Tunnel, which runs under the Houston Ship Channel and connects the cities of Galena Park with Pasadena, is the last remaining traffic tunnel in the entire state of Texas.

Not far from there, though, is where a similar tunnel under the ship channel that connected Baytown and LaPorte once sat.

The tunnel that connected Baytown and LaPorte is now gone, and the story of its demolition may involve a ghost.

Now, most of us would probably avoid a creepy forest, or a haunted house around Halloween time, but for some, an abandoned traffic tunnel buried nearly 100 feet below the water level under a busy ship channel seems spookier.

In 1998, the tunnel was permanently closed and was to be removed for waterway expansion. And so it came to pass that when construction crews were hired to dismantle the tunnel, some weird things happened.

Like the time when water began pouring through an air-tight steel and a concrete barrier to keep the water out. It made a kind of menacing, buzzing noise they say, and everyone was evacuated.

They finally got the leak under control, but then a short while later, a worker swears he saw a ghost.

According to Eric Sommer, the Project Director for Williams Brothers Construction Co. who spoke in a 2001 TxDOT video about the project, an employee was opening the gate to the blocked-off tunnel early in the morning. According to Sommer, as he walked inside, he saw a man standing with his back to him.

The ghostly figure was wearing a pair of blue jeans, an old metal round hard hat and a metal lunch pail, “like you see construction workers back in the late 40’s early 50’s.” Sommer said the worker who saw the apparition turned and ran out of the tunnel.

Eventually, the huge steel tube that encased the traffic tunnel was lifted from the mud and the clay and was promptly sent away. The tunnel was replaced by the Fred Hartman Bridge, which is still around today.

But one can’t help but think about that tunnel, and wonder: was the ghost still inside the old tunnel when it was brought to the surface, or did it escape?