By 1953 about eight million vehicles a year were using the first Mersey road tunnel and this was causing severe traffic problems. In 1958 the Mersey Tunnel Joint Committee proposed a second tunnel. The construction of the new Runcorn – Widnes Bridge across the River Mersey to the south-east of Liverpool in 1961 had given some relief to the congestion but a second tunnel was still needed and plans to build it got the go ahead from Parilament in 1965.
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 Aerial view of Kingsway Tunnel with approach roads being built. |
The new tunnel was to run from north of Liverpool City centre off Scotland Road to Wallasey. There was some anger because homes on both sides of the Mersey had to be demolished in order to construct entrance roads for the second tunnel but in 1966 the pilot tunnel was cut and the construction of the main tunnel was underway in 1967.
Working conditions for the construction workers were again difficult and potentially dangerous when faced with the elements under the Mersey. However, unlike the people working on the first road tunnel (Queensway) in the 1920s and 1930s, technology had advanced and more sophisticated machinery could be used in the construction work. Even so the second tunnel had problems such as flooding and strikes that pushed back the predicted finish date.
Traffic levels in the Queensway Tunnel had reached 19 million per year by 1968, showing the need for the new tunnel under construction. The tunnel breakthrough happened on 4 March 1970 and by the following year the Liverpool – Wallasey tunnel was complete. Members of the public were once again given the opportunity to walk under the Mersey through the new tunnel for charity.
Queen Elizabeth II opened the new tunnel on 24 June 1971 which was named Kingsway in honour of her grandfather George V, the King who had opened Queensway thirty-seven years before. | 
