The Moffat Tunnel is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

and water tunnel that cuts through the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

in north-central

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. Named after Colorado railroad pioneer

David Moffat David Halliday Moffat (July 22, 1839 – March 18, 1911) was an American financier and industrialist, who was one of the original pioneers of Denver, Colorado. History Moffat was born in Washingtonville, New York, to David and Catherine Gregg. ...

, the tunnel's first official railroad traffic passed through in February 1928. The Moffat Tunnel finally provided Denver with a western link through the Continental Divide, as both

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Wyoming, most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming. It is the county seat of Laramie County, Wyoming, Laramie County, with 65,132 reside ...

, to the north and

Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

to the south already enjoyed rail access to the West Coast. It follows the right-of-way laid out by Moffat in 1902 while he was seeking a better and shorter route from Denver to

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. The Moffat Tunnel averages 15 trains per day. The railroad and water tunnels parallel one another; the water tunnel delivers a portion of Denver's water supply. In 1979, the tunnel was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

Overview

The eastern portal is about west of

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

in the Front Range, about west of the town of Rollinsville. The West Portal is located at the base area of Winter Park Resort, above and east of the Dotsero Cutoff that leads west towards Salt Lake City. The railroad tunnel is high, wide, and long. The apex of the tunnel is at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. The tunnel has a gradient of 1 in 125 (0.8%). , the Moffat was the fourth-longest railroad tunnel in North America. It was the longest non- electrified tunnel until 1956, when electrification was removed from the Cascade Tunnel. The tunnel is single-tracked, so only one train is run through at a time, usually with eastbound and westbound trains alternating. For safety reasons, passengers are asked to not move from one car to another while the train is in the tunnel. Moffat Tunnel is owned by the State of Colorado. It was initially operated by

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

(UP) under a 99-year lease agreement. The use fee was $12,000 per year and was set to expire on January 6, 2025. In late 2024, Colorado and UP negotiated a new lease for the tunnel with a 25-year term, to be initiated on May 1, 2025. Provisions of the new lease forwent a monetary payment from UP in exchange for the right for the state to operate new passenger services over the line. Although its primary purpose today is as a rail route for coal and freight, and as a water tunnel from the Pacific watershed to the Denver area, it also sees use by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

's ''

California Zephyr The ''California Zephyr'' is a Amtrak Long Distance, long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago, Illinois, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville station, Emeryville), via Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, Denver, Sa ...

'' and '' Winter Park Express''. The tunnel's apex elevation of is the highest point on the Amtrak network. Since August 15, 2021, the Rocky Mountaineer tourist train operator has used the tunnel on its "Rockies to the Red Rocks" route between

and

Moab Moab () was an ancient Levant, Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by ...

with an overnight stop in Glenwood Springs.

Ventilation system

The tunnel is ventilated by massive fans operating after a train has exited the tunnel. The portals have doors which are shut before the fans are activated. Originally, trains would have to wait some 20–30 minutes before proceeding into the tunnel after the doors were re-opened. Today, a sensor system is employed to evaluate the clearance of diesel exhaust, which today can be less than 20 minutes for lighter trains.

History

The tunnel was conceived by

of the Denver, Northwestern, and Pacific (DNW&P) railroad as early as 1902. The original DNW&P tracks climbed Rollins Pass with a series of switchback loops with a steep 4% grade and severe snow conditions. Snow removal on the original line made it unprofitable to operate. Moffat was unable to raise sufficient funds to build the tunnel before he died in 1911,. but the forces behind the tunnel continued, and in 1914 a Denver bond issue was approved, financing two thirds of the construction cost of the tunnel. The issue was defeated in a court decision which ruled that Denver did not have the constitutional right to enter into a joint venture to construct the tunnel with a private corporation. In 1920, a bill was introduced in the state legislature to build three tunnels under Monarch Pass, Cumbres Pass, and Rollins Pass (the Moffat Route). The various regions of the state could not come to agreement, partly because the southern and southwestern regions feared that Denver would gain a new advantage in commerce from the Moffat Route. Blocking this legislation would ultimately backfire when Denver was finally able to secure financing for its tunnel. 174AMMoffattwest

In early 1922, Denver's lawmakers in the state legislature found an opening. Pueblo had been devastated by a

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

, and Gov. Oliver Henry Shoup called an emergency session of the legislature. Denver lawmakers now had power over Pueblo. They would vote for emergency funding for the beleaguered town (an economic rival to Denver) in return for legislation authorizing the issuance of bonds for Denver's tunnel. A deal was struck, and on April 29, the Moffat Tunnel Improvement District was created. East Portal

The district boundaries included the

City and County of Denver Denver ( ) is a consolidated city and county, the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the Western United States, in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains east of ...

and all or portions of the counties traversed by the Denver and Salt Lake Railway. The district had the authority to levy taxes and issue bonds backed by real estate within the district. The Colorado Supreme Court in November 1922 upheld the constitutionality of the law creating the district and its ability to issue bonds. The bonds were sold and construction began. The bonds were fully paid off in December 1983, but the commission continued to exist until 1998. It was finally disbanded after a series of political intrigues related to Winter Park Resort, which was built partly on land owned by the commission (known as the Evans Tract). In 1988, Rio Grande Industries, the company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, purchased the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

. The combined company took the Southern Pacific name because of its name recognition among shippers. On September 11, 1996, owner

Philip Anschutz Philip Frederick Anschutz ( ; born December 28, 1939) is an American billionaire businessman who owns or controls companies in a variety of industries, including energy, railroads, real estate, sports, newspapers, travel, movies, theaters, arena ...

sold the combined company to the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

in response to the earlier merger of the Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe which formed the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. For many years, tunnel wastewater discharge, including coal dust and metal particles, has been a concern for Grand County and the Water Quality and Control Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). In 2008, the tunnel discharged an average of 30,000 gallons of wastewater into the Fraser River daily. The railroad was forced to build a wastewater treatment plant in 2017. In late July 2023, for a day-and-a-half, the nearby UP wastewater treatment plant released "400,000 gallons of untreated groundwater and industrial wastewater" into the Fraser River.

Construction

The Moffat Tunnel was cut under a shoulder of James Peak. A small pilot tunnel was bored parallel with and south of the main tunnel to facilitate the work and was high and wide. In 1925, bad rock at the west end of the tunnel delayed construction, and costs soared. The pilot tunnel was officially "holed through" on February 18, 1927; the blast of dynamite was set off by President

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he previously ...

pressing a key in Washington, D.C., and the program was broadcast by radio from the heart of the mountain. Three more bond issues were sold before the tunnel was completed. The railroad tunnel was holed through on July 7, 1927, and formally turned over to the lessee on February 26, 1928. That date later marked the Tunnel’s Golden Anniversary on February 26, 1978—making February 26, 2028, the date of its Centennial. Upon completion of the Dotsero Cutoff five years later, railroad connections through the tunnel shortened the distance between Denver and the Pacific coast by . The tunnel took 48 months to bore; the average daily progress was . The first train passed through the tunnel in February 1928. Although the original cost of the tunnel was pegged at $6.62 million, final assessments collected by the Moffat Tunnel district, including interest, were $23,972,843. The cost of the two tunnels was $15.6 million (equivalent to $ in ), which is $475 per linear foot ($1,558 per linear meter). Each of the ornamental bronze characters on the east and west portals (entrances) of the tunnel cost $40 and a separate cast had to be made for each character. Further, on each portal are the dates: 1923 (when construction began) and 1927 (the year the tunnel was scheduled to be completed). By not changing 1927 to 1928 (the year the tunnel was actually finished and opened), this saved the commission $80 ($40 each portal) at the time (equivalent to $ for both in ). The project excavated , or of rock, equal to 1,600 freight trains of 40 cars each. During the five-year project, 28 people died, six in a single cave-in on July 30, 1926. However, new information is emerging that the death count may be higher than 28. Track rails in the tunnel, originally jointed, were replaced in the 1930s with continuous welded rail, one of the earliest such installations in North America. This decision was prompted by the corrosive effect of coal smoke and steam condensate, captive within the tunnel, on the joints.

Water tunnel

The pilot bore was leased to the City of Denver for use as a water tunnel to divert water east from the Colorado River Basin under the

to the urban areas of the eastern slope. The pilot bore was enlarged to a diameter of , giving it a carrying capacity of , and water diversion began in 1936. In 1979, the water tunnel was sold by the Moffat Tunnel Improvement District to the city. Since the 1940s, the tunnel has also conveyed water for the city of Englewood. Some of the water flowing through the Moffat Tunnel to Denver actually crosses the Continental Divide three times. This water originates in the city's Williams Fork collection system, from which it passes east across the Continental Divide through the Gumlick Tunnel under Jones Pass, into the basin of Clear Creek. This water then flows north across the Continental Divide through the Vasquez Tunnel into the valley of the

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

before reaching the Moffat Tunnel.

East Portal Camp Cabins

On January 30, 2020, the five remaining East Portal Camp Cabins (located at the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel adjacent to Rollins Pass) were classified by Colorado Preservation as one of Colorado's Most Endangered Places. In the spring of 2023, the Gilpin County Historic Preservation Commission's Vice Chair, B. Travis Wright, nominated these cabins to become a Gilpin County local historic landmark. On June 13, 2023, the designation of the East Portal Camp Cabins was unanimously approved for local landmark designation, by a vote of 3–0.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * *