{"id":802786,"date":"2020-01-06T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=376890"},"modified":"2020-01-06T09:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T16:30:00","slug":"forty-years-ago-the-eisenhower-and-johnson-memorial-tunnels-became-the-states-transportation-linchpin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/forty-years-ago-the-eisenhower-and-johnson-memorial-tunnels-became-the-states-transportation-linchpin\/","title":{"rendered":"Forty years ago, the Eisenhower and Johnson Memorial tunnels became the state\u2019s transportation linchpin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
On Dec. 21, 1979, both bores of the Eisenhower\/Johnson Memorial Tunnels opened, forever changing traffic flow and economic conditions in the Colorado high country.<\/strong>
Vail Daily file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

EAGLE COUNTY \u2014 During the busy holiday season, an important Colorado milestone passed.<\/p>\n

Dec. 21, 1979, was a historic day for the entire state, and particularly for Colorado\u2019s Western Slope. That\u2019s when the eastbound bore of the Eisenhower and Johnson Memorial Tunnels opened to traffic. The first tunnel had already been in operation for six years but, as noted on the Colorado Department of Transportation website<\/a>, \u201cThe Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel westbound bore hardly had gone into two-way service March 8, 1973, when the need for a second bore under the Continental Divide became evident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen four lanes of Interstate 70 were squeezed to a single lane each direction through the tunnel, the predictable result was a bottleneck impacting summer tourist traffic and wintertime ski rushes, particularly the Denver-bound motorists on Saturday and Sunday evenings,\u201d the CDOT website continues.<\/p>\n

Today, it\u2019s hard to imagine what it would be like to navigate Interstate 70 through the Colorado High Country without the tunnel in service. According to CDOT, more than 13 million vehicles \u2014 an average that hovers around approximately 40,000 vehicles per day \u2014 travel through the tunnels each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at today\u2019s traffic, I don\u2019t know what we would do without the tunnels,\u201d said Kent Rose, who moved to Vail back in 1972 to take the job as the town\u2019s engineer. \u201cIf we were down to two lanes now, with the traffic we have, it could take a week to get down to Denver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two-hour rule<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The legacy of the Eisenhower and Johnson Memorial Tunnels is very personal for Merv Lapin of Vail. He staked his financial future on the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the things that kept me in Vail,\u201d Lapin said. \u201cIt made me realize that the trip to Denver would only take an hour and a half or two hours. I knew the tunnel project would make Vail more popular. It was one of the elements that told me there was a potential business for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his case, that business involved accumulating land and doing land partnerships for properties in the path of development. For Lapin, I-70 defined that path.<\/p>\n

By the numbers, the Eisenhower and Johnson tunnels cut 9.1 miles from the trip to and from Denver. But that number doesn\u2019t really measure the impact. Before the twin tunnels opened, motorists had to travel two-lane Loveland Pass to cross the Continental Divide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to take four hours to get to Vail. When you lived here, you would make a trip every two to four weeks to go to Denver to get what you needed to buy,\u201d Lapin said.<\/p>\n

Cutting two hours off the trip time was a game-changer in both directions. For Vail, it meant more people could reasonably access its famed slopes. As motorists know, there are two major I-70 features that pave the way to Eagle County. Vail Pass<\/a> dates back to the 1940s and the roadway was upgraded to four-lane I-70 in 1978. But it wasn\u2019t until the twin tunnels opened that all the pieces were in place to easily get to the resort town.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the East Coast, the rule of thumb is for a ski area to make it, it has to be located within two hours of a major metropolitan area,\u201d Lapin said. \u201cEveryone around Vail was very supportive of it (the tunnel construction). The town of Vail looked at it as a project that would cause more people to come to Vail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corridor linchpin<\/h2>\n

Eventually, completion of the Eisenhower and Johnson Memorial Tunnels meant that more Denver-area dwellers invested in second homes in the Vail Valley because they could more easily visit the area, Lapin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also became a lot easier and cheaper to get goods delivered here. It became a more competitive market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forty years later, CDOT officials note that the twin tunnels remain a vital part of Colorado transportation and commerce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels is a critical facility since the I-70 Corridor is the primary east\/west highway in Colorado,\u201d said Patrick Chavez, the coordinator of CDOT\u2019s Statewide Traffic Incident Management Program. \u201cWe see that when there is a closure anywhere on the corridor with alternate routes quickly becoming congested from the volumes being diverted from I-70.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the twin tunnels are key to the management of highway operations and the linchpin of the corridor. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens at the Eisenhower\/Johnson Memorial Tunnels has huge impacts from Golden to Vail and the enormous volumes of traffic that flow through that area,\u201d Chavez said. \u201cThe I-70 Corridor is one of the main drivers of economic benefit for Colorado that supports both internal\/external state commerce but also internal and out-of-state recreation travel. Because the Eisenhower\/Johnson Memorial Tunnels is at the center of this corridor, it makes it extremely critical to the overall effective operations of the corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n

As technology has advanced, the twin tunnels have become even more important to the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels provides the infrastructure for fiber optic communications and we are also working on a project to provide better cell service coverage throughout the tunnel with antennas,\u201d said CDOT Region 1 Tunnel Resident Engineer Neal Retzer.<\/p>\n

The twin tunnels also serve the I-70 corridor as a dispatch\/operations center from Dotsero to Golden.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also respond to emergencies in the area since we have several response vehicles like firetrucks and employees with EMT training,\u201d Retzer said. \u201cWe have our own domestic water supply and treatment facilities. We also house several types of avalanche management supplies and provide support for those operations in the area such as the west side of the continental divide and along US 6 over Loveland Pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the CDOT website, the total cost of the project was $108 million. In today\u2019s dollars, that sounds like a deal, considering the Grand Avenue Bridge replacement project in Glenwood Springs it cost $125.6 million. But the tunnel construction was a monumental financial and engineering challenge.<\/p>\n

During the height of construction of the Eisenhower bore, as many as 1,140 construction workers were employed in three shifts, 24 hours a day, six days a week. More than 800 workers built the Johnson bore, some 480 of them in actual drilling operations. Today, 40 years after they became fully operational, the structures are more vital than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstruction of both tunnels has attracted international attention; engineers and rock mechanics from free world and communist countries alike have toured the site 60 miles west of Denver,\u201d notes the CDOT website. \u201cThe technical aspects will continue to fascinate engineering professionals.  But for hundreds of thousands of highway users, the tunnels will continue to save 30 minutes to an hour in drive time compared to U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass. After 12 years of construction time, the task that seemed impossible to some persons and improbable to many others had been accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Dec. 21, 1979, both bores of the Eisenhower\/Johnson Memorial Tunnels opened, forever changing traffic flow and economic conditions in the Colorado high country.Vail Daily file photo EAGLE COUNTY \u2014 During the busy holiday season, an important Colorado milestone passed. Dec. 21, 1979, was a historic day for the entire state, and particularly for Colorado\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-29 09:39:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}