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Colorado tunnel creates highway sinkhole
Mother Nature is simply starting a daylighting project. The big question is who will carry the costs?
Yes, UP should re-open that line. When closed, it was only used by one or two trains a day and required helpers and helper crews to get over the pass. Owners of coal mines in the Delta area of CO were told by UP not too long ago that the Moffet Tunnel was at capacity (20 minutes are required to clear the air in the 6.2 mile tunnel after a train passes). Routing Delta coal over Tennessee Pass would open new markets in Texas for the mines owners.
Well, rumors have gone around for years that UP would reopen the Tennessee Pass/Royal Gorge route eventually, but now that this has happened, I wonder if they would even find it economical/feasible to repair it to reopen it now? Guess there isn’t really any more hope for that line. Such a shame, considering how heavily used it used to be by both passenger and freight and how scenic it is. Wonder if the Royal Gorge Railway would buy it, or maybe the BNSF could finally convince UP to sell them that line.
The sinkhole is from a tunnel abandoned long ago. It is not on the line currently owned by UP. Please read the article carefully.
Apparently this is the tunnel under Tennessee Pass route for the D&RG, built to replace the original alignment which mounted the pass without tunneling. It was placed close to the summit of the pass (100 ft as reported.)
The original route over the pass now holds highway 24 on the south side.
This route was replaced with this tunnel. Later in a realignment of the route, a new tunnel was constructed 50 ft west of old tunnel which has apparently collapsed. The portals were filled in with dirt.
As highway 24 is closed becauses of the sinkhole, an interesting solution would be to remove the rails from the UP Tunnel still in place and route traffic through it!!! (Probably more trouble than it’s worth ;>)
If government was smart, and it is not, it would have regularly inspected or backfilled a known abandoned tunnel under a highway. But then perhaps, it was inspected regularly by the government highway inspectors but none of the higher up idiots in government were paying attention to do something about it.
Of course when UP has a derailment and takes down an often inspected and maintained bridge just outside of Chicago, all the pro big government wingnuts come out of the woodwork and scream about how much better a job government could do by imposing more control on the freight railroads.
This is not the only example of government incompetence. I offer up Exhibit A, Chicago Flood of 1992, which happened when nobody in government was listening to the government inspectors.
You guys didn’t read the article carefully. This is an old tunnel, not part of the current right of way owned by UP, so it would not in any way affect reopening the route.
This old tunnel is just east of the current alignment. Used to be rumors of an l-131 stashed in there! Ha!
The regular news media didn’t mention that there were two tunnels at the site. I too, thought at first it was the tunnel currently in use and would make Tennesse Pass impossible to use in case of a major disruption to other routes over the continental divide. I’m glad that “Trains” clarified the fact that an older tunnel was involved.
Comments on this Trains report above remind me of the need to someday to reopen the the Tennesse Pass line (which runs from Pueblo, Colorado to join the Moffat Tunnel route just east of Glenwood Springs).
Since the Moffat route is reported to be “running at capacity,” it may be due time for ColoRail and other interests to renew their efforts to reopen the Tennesse Pass both for a more efficient Union Pacific freight service as well as a better California Zephyr on-time performance on the crowded Moffat Route.