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 prep ...
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, n ...
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, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 US Census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistica ...
, 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, t ...
. 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, p ...
.
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#State capital, capital, and List of municipalities in Colorado#, most populous city of th ...
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 ...
at , above and east of the
Dotsero Cutoff
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 ...
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 the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
. 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 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,
Cumbres Pass, 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 hydrolog ...
, 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 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 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 R ...
, 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- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...
. 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 railroad, tr ...
. 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 overa ...
'' (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 Fore ...
. 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
Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a Republican lawyer from New England who climbed up the ladder of Ma ...
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
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 ...
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 (sleeper ...
, 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 drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
under 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, n ...
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 in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual ...
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.
See also
*
Cascade Tunnel, a similar and longer railroad tunnel in
Washington (state)
Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a U.S. state, state in the Northwestern United States, Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first President of the United States, U.S. p ...
*
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 ...
,
Mount Macdonald Tunnel
The Mount Macdonald Tunnel is in southeastern British Columbia, on the Revelstoke–Donald segment. This single-track tunnel, which carries the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) main line under Mount Macdonald in the Selkirk Mountains, handles most ...
,
Big Hill Spiral Tunnels and
Mount Shaughnessy Tunnel, in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world ...
traversing the
Canadian Rockies
The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...
*
Eisenhower Tunnel
The Eisenhower Tunnel, officially the Eisenhower–Edwin C. Johnson Memorial Tunnel, is a dual-bore, four-lane vehicular tunnel in the western United States, approximately west of Denver, Colorado. The tunnel carries Interstate 70 (I-70) und ...
, equivalent tunnel for road traffic, built 50 years later.
*
Lists of tunnels
* ''
The White Desert
''The White Desert'' is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Reginald Barker. The film stars Claire Windsor and Pat O'Malley, with Robert Frazer, Frank Currier, and Sōjin Kamiyama. It is written by Monte M. Katterjohn and Gordon ...
'' (1925)
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Gilpin County, Colorado
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks
Mountain passes of Colorado
Rail mountain passes of the United States
Railroad tunnels in Colorado
Transportation buildings and structures in Grand County, Colorado
Transportation in Gilpin County, Colorado
Tunnels completed in 1927
Union Pacific Railroad tunnels
Water tunnels in the United States