The Moffat Tunnel is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

and water tunnel that cuts through the Continental Divide in north-central

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. Named after Colorado railroad pioneer David Moffat, 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 capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, as well as the county seat of Laramie County, Wyoming, Laramie County, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 US Census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne ...

, to the north and

Pueblo In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...

to the south already enjoyed rail access to the West Coast. It follows the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

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 and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

. 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 __NOTOC__ The following is a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers since it began the program in 1964. The designation is granted to projects, structures, and sites in the United State ...

by the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Overview

The eastern portal is about west of

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

in the Front Range, about west of the town of Rollinsville at . The West Portal is located at the base area of

Winter Park Resort Winter Park Resort is an alpine ski resort in the western United States, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado at Winter Park. Located in Grand County just off U.S. Highway 40, the resort is about a ninety-minute drive from Denver. History The mo ...

at , 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. 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 Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

tunnel until 1956, when electrification was removed from the

Cascade Tunnel The Cascade Tunnel refers to two railroad tunnels (original and its replacement) in the northwest United States, east of the Seattle metropolitan area in the Cascade Range of Washington, at Stevens Pass. It is approximately east of Everett, wit ...

. 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 not to move from one car to another while the train is in the tunnel.

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 David Moffat of the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific (DNW&P) railroad as early as 1902. The original DNW&P tracks climbed

Rollins Pass Rollins Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass and active archaeological siteLaBelle, Jason M. & Pelton, Spencer R. "Communal hunting along the Continental Divide of Northern Colorado: Results from the Olson game drive (5BL147)", 2013 in the Sout ...

with a series of switch back 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 Monarch Pass (elevation ) is a high mountain pass in central Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains of the western United States. Location and basic details The pass is located on the Continental Divide at the southern end of the Sawatch Range along ...

Cumbres Pass Cumbres Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, United States. The pass is traversed by State Highway 17 and the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. The highway has a moderate 5.8% approach on the north side ...

, and Rollins Pass (the Moffat Route). The various regions of the state could not come to agreement, partly because 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. 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 ( 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 an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

, and Gov.

Oliver Henry Shoup Oliver Henry Nelson Shoup (December 13, 1869 – September 30, 1940) was the 22nd Governor of Colorado from 1919 to 1923. Early life, education, and career Oliver Shoup was born in Champaign County, Illinois on December 13, 1869, to William and ...

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 The Moffat Tunnel Improvement District was an independent entity of the State of Colorado (USA) created to build and manage the Moffat Tunnel, a railroad and water tunnel under James Peak and Rollins Pass. The district had the authority to sell b ...

was created. The district boundaries included the City and County of Denver, and all or portions of the counties traversed by the

Denver and Salt Lake Railway The Denver and Salt Lake Railway (D&SL) was a U.S. railroad company located in Colorado. Originally incorporated in 1902 as the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific (DN&P) Railway, it had as a goal a direct connection of Denver, Colorado, with Sa ...

. The district had the authority to levy taxes and issue bonds backed by real estate within the district. The following summer, 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 Rio Grande Industries (RGI or Rio Grande Industries, Inc.) was a name of two holding companies that were involved in the railroading industry. The original and second company took part in the operations of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Ra ...

, the company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, purchased the Southern Pacific Railroad. The combined company took the Southern Pacific name because of its name recognition among shippers. On September 11, 1996, owner Philip Anschutz sold the combined company to the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

in response to the earlier merger of the

Burlington Northern The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroadin ...

and the Santa Fe which formed the

Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

. 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 the ''

California Zephyr The ''California Zephyr'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area (at Emeryville), via Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. At , it is Amtrak's longest daily route, and second-longest overall ...

'' (the tunnel's apex elevation of is the highest point on the Amtrak network) and the '' Winter Park Express''.

Construction

The Moffat Tunnel was cut under a shoulder of

James Peak James Peak is a high mountain summit in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 13,294 foot thirteener is located on the Continental Divide in the James Peak Wilderness of Arapaho National Forest and Roosevelt National Forest ...

. 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 set off by President Calvin Coolidge 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. 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 $15.6 million ($ adjusted for inflation), 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 ($40 each portal) at the time ($ for both adjusted for inflation). 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. Track rails in the tunnel, originally jointed, were replaced in the 1930s with

continuous welded rail A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers ...

, 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 The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

under the Continental Divide 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

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 before reaching the Moffat Tunnel.

Modern restoration

From May 2018 through November 2019, the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel underwent a 14,200 square foot roof replacement with a Sarnafil 60mil G410 PVC fully adhered roofing system.

East Portal Camp Cabins

On Thursday, 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, Inc. as one of Colorado's Most Endangered Places.

References

Bibliography

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