Moffat Tunnel
Encyclopedia
Water tunnel (physical infrastructure)
Water tunnels are tunnels used to transport water to areas with large populations or agriculture. They are part of aqueducts.-See also:*Metropolitan Water District of Southern California*Moffat Tunnel...
that cuts through the Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
in north-central Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. Named after Colorado railroad pioneer David Moffat
David Moffat
David Halliday Moffat was an American financier and industrialist.Moffat was one of Denver's most important financiers and industrialists in late 19th and early 20th century Colorado, and he was responsible for the development of the Middle Park area. He served as president, treasurer and as a...
, the tunnel's first railroad traffic passed through in February 1928.
Fifty miles (80 km) west of Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
is the East Portal in the Front Range, about 10 miles (16.1 km) west of the town of Rollinsville, Colorado
Rollinsville, Colorado
Rollinsville is a census-designated place and a U.S. Post Office located in Gilpin County, Colorado, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 181.It is located in the mountains southwest of the city of Boulder, on the flank of a hill above South Boulder Creek along State Highway 119...
at 39.90235°N 105.6461°W. The West Portal is near the Winter Park Resort
Winter Park Resort
Winter Park Resort is an alpine ski resort in Winter Park, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains. Located just off U.S. Highway 40, the resort is about an hour and a half's drive from Denver, Colorado....
ski area at 39.887434°N 105.761347°W. The railroad tunnel is 24 feet (7.3 m) high, 18 feet (5.5 m) wide, and 6.2 miles (10 km) long. The apex of the tunnel is at 9239 feet (2,816 m) above sea level. The Moffat Tunnel finally provided Denver with a western link through the continental divide
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 connected to the open sea...
, as both Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
to the north and Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo, Colorado
Pueblo is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The population was 106,595 in 2010 census, making it the 246th most populous city in the United States....
to the south already enjoyed rail access to the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
. 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. The water tunnel and the railroad tunnel parallel each other; the water tunnel delivers a portion of Denver's water supply
Denver Water
Denver Water serves 1.3 million people in the City and County of Denver, Colorado and a portion of its surrounding suburbs. Established in 1918, the utility is a public agency funded by water rates and new tap fees, not taxes. It is Colorado's oldest and largest water utility.-Overview:A five...
.
History
David Moffat
David Halliday Moffat was an American financier and industrialist.Moffat was one of Denver's most important financiers and industrialists in late 19th and early 20th century Colorado, and he was responsible for the development of the Middle Park area. He served as president, treasurer and as a...
of the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific (DNW&P) railroad as early as 1902. The original DNW&P tracks climbed Rollins Pass
Rollins Pass
Rollins Pass is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado in the United States. The pass is located on the continental divide at the crest of the Front Range southwest of Boulder, at the boundary of Grand and Boulder counties.-Description:Rollins Pass Rollins Pass (el....
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
Monarch Pass is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of south-central Colorado in the United States.The pass is located on the continental divide at the southern end of the Sawatch Range along the border between Gunnison and Chaffee counties, approximately west of the town of Salida. The...
, Cumbres Pass
Cumbres Pass
Cumbres Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. 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 a gentler, 4% approach on the south 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
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
, and Gov. Oliver 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
Moffat Tunnel Improvement District
The Moffat Tunnel Improvement District was an independent entity of the State of Colorado created to build and manage the Moffat Tunnel, a railroad and water tunnel under James Peak and Rollins Pass....
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
Denver and Salt Lake Railway
The Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway was a U.S. railroad company incorporated on July 18, 1902, by David H. Moffat, Walter S. Cheesman, William Gray Evans, Charles J. Hughes, Jr., George E. Ross-Lewin, S.M. Perry and Frank P. Gibson...
. 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 the Winter Park Resort
Winter Park Resort
Winter Park Resort is an alpine ski resort in Winter Park, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains. Located just off U.S. Highway 40, the resort is about an hour and a half's drive from Denver, Colorado....
, which was built partly on land owned by the commission (known as the Evans Tract).
In 1988, Rio Grande Industries
Rio Grande Industries
Rio Grande Industries was the diversified parent company, headquartered in Denver, of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Formed in 1968, its non-railroad operations included construction, real estate, and energy units...
, the company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, purchased the Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
. The combined company took the Southern Pacific name because of its name recognition among shippers. On September 11, 1996 Anschutz sold the combined company to the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
in response to the earlier merger of the Burlington Northern
Burlington Northern Railroad
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....
and the Santa Fe
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...
which formed the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. The Union Pacific Railroad still uses Moffat Tunnel today. 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, tourists and cross-country passengers can enjoy the route on Amtrak's
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
California Zephyr
California Zephyr
The California Zephyr is a long passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the midwestern and western United States.It runs from Chicago, Illinois, in the east to Emeryville, California, in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California...
.
Construction
The Moffat Tunnel was cut under a shoulder of James PeakJames Peak
James Peak is a mountain located at the juncture of Clear Creek County, Grand County, and Gilpin County in north central Colorado in the United States. It has an elevation of 13,260 feet ....
. A pioneer tunnel was bored parallel with the main tunnel to facilitate the work and was eight feet high and eight feet wide. In 1925 bad rock at the west end of the tunnel delayed construction and costs soared. The pioneer tunnel was officially 'holed' through
Tunnel hole-through
Tunnel hole-through, also called breakthrough, is the time, during the construction of a tunnel built from both ends, when the ends meet, and the accuracy of the survey work becomes evident. Many tunnels report breakthroughs with an error of only a few inches.- See also :* Cascade Tunnel* Blue...
on February 18, 1926, the blast of dynamite being set off by President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
's pressing a key in Washington, and the program was broadcast by radio from the heart of the mountain. The pilot bore later became the water tunnel. Three more bond issues were sold before the tunnel was completed.
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, which is $475 per linear foot ($1,558 per linear meter). The project excavated 750000 cubic yards (573,416.1 m³), or 3000000000 pounds (1,360,777.1 t) of rock, equal to 1,600 freight trains of 40 cars each. 28 people died during the five-year project, six in a single cave-in on July 30, 1926.
The tunnel is under lease to the City of Denver, which operates it as a trans-mountain line that transports water to the eastern slope of the range. The railroad tunnel was 'holed' through on July 7, 1927, and formally turned over to the lessee on February 26, 1928. Railroad connections through the tunnel shortened the distance between Denver and the Pacific coast by 176 miles (283.2 km). The tunnel took 48 months to bore—average daily progress being 21 feet (6.4 m). The first train passed through the tunnel in February 1928.