The Mount Macdonald Tunnel is in southeastern
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, on the
Revelstoke–
Donald
Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...
segment. This
single-track tunnel, which carries the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
(CP) main line under
Mount Macdonald
Mount Macdonald is a mountain peak located in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, immediately to the east of Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park. It is notable as the location of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Connaught and ...
in the
Selkirk Mountains
The Selkirk Mountains are a mountain range spanning the northern portion of the Idaho Panhandle, eastern Washington, and southeastern British Columbia which are part of a larger grouping of mountains, the Columbia Mountains. They begin at Mica Pe ...
, handles most westbound traffic, whereas the
Connaught Tunnel
The Connaught Tunnel is in southeastern British Columbia, on the Revelstoke–Donald segment. The tunnel carries the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) main line under Mount Macdonald in the Selkirk Mountains, replacing the previous routing over Ro ...
handles mostly eastbound.
Shortcomings of the Connaught Track
By the 1970s, it was evident that the
Connaught Tunnel
The Connaught Tunnel is in southeastern British Columbia, on the Revelstoke–Donald segment. The tunnel carries the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) main line under Mount Macdonald in the Selkirk Mountains, replacing the previous routing over Ro ...
alone could not meet the increasing traffic demands. The major growth opportunities were primarily in the bulk commodities of coal, sulfur, and potash.
In 1980, the estimated construction cost of $300 million was almost 20 per cent of CP's gross income for 1979. Furthermore, westbound grain transportation had been an ongoing liability for the railways. Consequently, CP was unwilling to proceed with a new tunnel unless the
Crow Rate
The Crow Rate, or Crowsnest Freight Rate, was a rail transportation subsidy benefiting farmers on the Canadian Prairies and manufacturers in Central Canada by rate requirements imposed on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) by the Government of Ca ...
, which did not cover the variable cost of grain movement, was addressed. In response, the federal government gradually increased this rate from 1983, before abandoning rate regulation in 1993.
The need for
pusher locomotive
A bank engine (United Kingdom/Australia) (colloquially a banker), banking engine, helper engine or pusher engine (North America) is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a grad ...
s was another encumbrance. During the pusher station's existence, six engineers, six maintenance workers, and nine locomotives, were based at Rogers. Five-unit engines were used on heavy trains carrying grain, coal, and potash. Four-unit engines were used on other freights. A significant grade improvement would eliminate the need for pushers.
Proposals
To enable the reintroduction of
double track
A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.
Overview
In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...
s, three schemes required a lowering of the Connaught Tunnel floor, complemented by a new approach to serve the east portal:
* south side of the Beaver Valley with a loop up to the portal.
* higher than the existing track, requiring higher bridges over the five major streams, before levelling to the portal.
* below the existing track from Rogers with 1.0% grade to Stoney Creek, followed by two spiral tunnels up to the portal.
However, lowering the floor would be extremely difficult while maintaining traffic flow.
Three schemes offered a straight new tunnel at a lower elevation:
* approximating the tunnel as built.
* a tunnel from about the chosen west portal to about the
Mount Shaughnessy Tunnel
The Mount Shaughnessy Tunnel is in southeastern British Columbia, on the Revelstoke–Donald segment. This single-track tunnel, which carries the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) main line beneath the foothills of Mount Shaughnessy in the Selki ...
south portal.
* a tunnel from about west of Loop Creek to about the chosen east portal.
Mike Wakely, Regional Engineer, Special Projects, suggested the selected option, which provided a 1.0% grade from Rogers, and a west portal west of
Glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
station. The budget, including approaches, was $600 million. In 1975, preparatory work began in earnest.
Macdonald Track
The route of surface track and tunnels, within a wide right-of-way, uses continuous welded rail.
. Connaught Track and Macdonald Track diverge; named for former Pacific Region V.P.; previously called Rogers.
. Length: ; two span; double track; Cana Construction
completed in July 1984.
. Connaught Track had to be moved into the mountainside along this section to accommodate the new lower track.
. Length: ; 2 X 250-ton spans. Height: about below Mountain Creek bridge on Connaught Track. Cana Construction
completed in fall 1985.
. A siding;
named after Mike Wakely, a former chief construction engineer, who oversaw the years of preparatory work, but retired before the work was properly underway, and died soon after, never to see the completed project.
. Length: ; seven spans. Height: about below Stoney Creek bridge on Connaught Track.
. Length: ; Pitts Engineering Construction began work in 1985; 45 X steel spans, each weighing 82 tonnes; brought from
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
via the
Crowsnest Pass
Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, french: link=no, col du Nid-de-Corbeau) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border.
Geography
The pass i ...
, because too wide for the
Spiral Tunnels
Lists of spiral (helicoidal) tunnels and tunnels on a curved alignment on roads and railway lines worldwide.
Road tunnels
* Churchischleif, road to Isenfluh (Switzerland)
* Drammen Spiral, Norway
* on SS 659 near Formazza, Italy (full 360° turn ...
, and unloaded at the south end of the new Stoney Creek bridge; supported on 44 custom-designed piers and two abutments; pier heights range from to ;
cut and fill
In earthmoving, cut and fill is the process of constructing a railway, road or canal whereby the amount of material from cuts roughly matches the amount of fill needed to make nearby embankments to minimize the amount of construction labor.
...
not adopted because it would undermine Connaught Track above, and encroach on highway below; spans installed from early 1987 to that July; walkway on north side; named after
John Fox.
. Length .
. Length ; single span; comprises a pair of 70-ton deck plate girders, offloaded near the east portal of the Connaught Tunnel, and hauled up to the highway and down to the site; Cana Construction built.
. A railway point.
. A railway point.
Construction
CP Rail
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
built a substation in Revelstoke and from it constructed a 35kV operating distribution line along the railway right-of-way; originally built using both 69kV insulators and construction standards.
On August 27, 1984, the Selkirk Construction joint venture (comprising S.A. Healey, Foundation Company of Canada, and Atlas Construction) began blasting from the east portal. By mid-October, sufficient room existed to install their diameter, long, tunnel-boring machine (TBM). In December 1985, the tunnel passed below the Connaught one, almost directly beneath the mountain peak. On completion, Selkirk Construction had advanced westward.
On October 5, 1984, the Manning-Kumagai (MK) joint venture (comprising Manning Construction and Kumagai Gumi) began from the west portal. Using the
drilling and blasting
Drilling and blasting is the controlled use of explosives and other methods, such as gas pressure blasting pyrotechnics, to break rock for excavation. It is practiced most often in mining, quarrying and civil engineering such as dam, tunnel o ...
method, 30 men, rostered in 3 shifts, completed eastward. Meanwhile, the highway was temporarily relocated to construct a long reinforced concrete box in a
cut-and-cover
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
trench. This structure carries both the highway and protects the portal from avalanches. In 1985, the words "Mount Macdonald Tunnel 1988" were stamped into the concrete cladding above the portal. The eastern work camp was near the Mt. Shaughnessy Tunnel, and the western one at Flat Creek. A third camp for summer surface workers existed near Rogers.
![Mount-Macdonald-Tunnel (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Mount-Macdonald-Tunnel_%282%29.jpg)
Breaking through on October 24, 1986, the approaching tunnels joined. Cementation Canada sank the diameter, deep, ventilation shaft. MK drilled and blasted the gate chamber below, and air tunnels to, this shaft. After concrete lining, the tunnel height is , and the width is on the straights, and on the curves. In September 1988, the final track concrete was poured. The Paved Concrete Track (PaCT) rests on a wide, thick, reinforced concrete slab. The height clearance can accommodate any future electrification.
A fleet of 50 dump cars were built exclusively for the project. About 5,000 tons of material were removed daily from the western side.
Parks Canada
Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...
allowed some dumping about from the portal, creating a bed for track twinning. The remainder was dumped outside the park boundary at various proposed double tracking sites between Golden and Revelstoke. The of rubble produced daily at the eastern end was dumped into a large depression to create the grade. Minus the bridge, this fill covered the distance to the Mt. Shaughnessy Tunnel.
Tunnel ventilation
The purpose of the ventilation system is to prevent locomotives overheating and remove air pollutants. The opening and closing of the gates at the portals and mid-point assists the extraction process. The mid-tunnel gate structure stands inside a , , and cavern. In a power failure, counterweights return all gates to the up position. Each gate has a central wooden panel designed to break if struck by a train. Although monitored at the Revelstoke control centre, the ventilation system is computer controlled, and adjusts to the type and size of train. Standing at the top of the shaft, near the
Rogers Pass highway summit, the ventilation building houses four fans, a standby diesel generator, and two elevators. Used by maintenance staff, each open cage takes minutes to slowly descend an open elevator shaft to tunnel level. A straight tunnel would have made the shaft location clearly visible from the summit monument. To hide the complex, a slight kink was made in the tunnel alignment.
Operation
On November 9, 1988, the first official train travelled the Macdonald Track westward. About west of the west portal, R.S Allison, CP president, connected the last track clip. On December 12, 1988, the first revenue train, hauling coal, passed through the tunnel, and saved an hour on the journey. The official opening of the $422 million tunnel was in May 1989.
The crest at the west portal is lower than the Connaught crest. The 0.7 gradient westward eliminated the need for pusher locomotives. Nowadays, locomotives can climb the grade at . Loaded coal trains travel at through the tunnel. To ensure frequency vibrations do not cause damage to the track structure, the speed limit for all traffic is .
Maintenance
CP repairs of PaCT each year. Drain holes cored down to a longitudinal collector drain under the tunnel reduce failures from excessive surface water. Slab cracking, owing to insufficient lateral and longitudinal reinforcing in the PaCT slab, can be repaired with epoxy resin in minor cases. Injecting the resin restores structural integrity. Slab removal and replacement is needed in serious cases. From 1993 to 2020, a total of of PaCT were replaced in the two tunnels.
The hardware for power, communications, and signalling is obsolete. The slow ventilation systems can take 45 minutes to purge the air after each train. In 2019, consultants were advising on possible improvements, but it will probably take 5 to 10 years to modernize the tunnel.
Notability
Twelfth longest railway tunnel when opened:
Seikan Tunnel (1988) (Japan)
Daishimizu Tunnel (1982) (Japan)
Simplon Tunnel
, it, Galleria del Sempione
, line = Simplon line, (Lötschberg railway line)
, location = Traversing the Lepontine Alps between Switzerland and Italy
, coordinates = –
, system = Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FF ...
(1906) (Switzerland)
Shin Kanmon Tunnel (1975) (Japan)
Apennine Base Tunnel
The Apennine Base Tunnel, alternatively known as the Grand Apennine Tunnel, is a railway base tunnel long on the Bologna-Florence Direttissima line in central Italy. At the time of its completion, the Apennine Base Tunnel was the world's second ...
(1934) (Italy)
Rokkō Tunnel (1972)
Furka Base Tunnel
The Furka Base Tunnel is a Swiss railway base tunnel on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn's Furka–Oberalp line, an east-west railway connecting the cantons of Valais and Uri. Its west portal lies east of Oberwald (VS), at above sea level and its ...
(1982) (Switzerland)
Haruna (1982)
Monte Santomarco Tunnel (1987) (Italy)
Gotthard Tunnel
, it, Galleria del San Gottardo
, other_name =
, line = Gotthard Line
, location = Traversing the Saint-Gotthard Massif in the middle of the Swiss Alps
, coordinates =
, os_grid_ref =
, status =
, system ...
(1882) (Switzerland)
Nakayama (1982)
Mount Macdonald Tunnel (1988)
However, it took the title 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 ...
(1929) as the longest railway tunnel in the North America. The project was the largest CP expansion of capacity since the building of the transcontinental in the early 1880s.
In 2016, the tunnel was inducted into the North America Railway Hall of Fame. Tunnel 4 of the
Cuajone–El Sargento line in
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
is of similar length, and which is the longer of the two is disputed.
Accidents
2005: While clearing ice in the tunnel, an employee died when struck by a falling chunk.
2019: An avalanche descending upon a stopped train at Wakely derailed seven
container
A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping.
Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The term ...
-carrying
flatcar
A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...
s.
Footnotes
References
*
*
*{{cite web , url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0095109#downloadfiles , last=Backler , first=Gary G. , title=The C.P.R.'s capacity and investment strategy in Rogers Pass, B.C., 1882–1916 , year=1981 , website=www.open.library.ubc.ca
Canadian Pacific Railway tunnels
Railway tunnels in British Columbia
Tunnels completed in 1988
Glacier National Park (Canada)
1988 establishments in British Columbia