Gov. Robert P. Casey officially opened the new southbound Lehigh Tunnel on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike yesterday, labeling it “an investment in the future.”

Casey served as the keynote speaker for the program and then rode in the back seat of a spotless 1909 Peerless convertible driven by Dr. Stanley Cope of Palmerton as the car snapped a red, white and blue ribbon held by two Lehighton Area High School students.

The new 4,380-foot tube runs parallel to the original box-shaped opening which was constructed in the mid-1950s. The original tunnel consisted of the only two-lane stretch on the 470-mile turnpike mainline.