Massive Denver Area Highway Tunnel to Get Upgrade

Work could begin in 2023 on a long-delayed, much planned project that will see renovations to the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel in metro Denver.

Located some 60 miles to the west of the Mile High City, the tunnel is named after Dwight Eisenhower, the president who signed legislation ushering in the federal highway network, and former Colorado Governor Edwin Johnson.

The westbound bore of the tunnel, completed in 1973, is named in honor of Eisenhower, while the eastward bore, wrapped in 1979, is named after Johnson.

The 60-mile-long tunnel, noted the Denver Post recently, is an engineering wonder, built at “11,000 feet above sea level and burrowed through a mile and a half of often-resistant granite and other rock.”

One of the most used throughways in the country serving upwards of 13 million vehicles a year, the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel pushes beneath the Continental Divide and has long been regarded as in need of structural repairs.

Last summer Colorado Department of Transportation officials said they anticipated spending upwards of $150 million repairing groundwater leaks and both plumbing and electrical system overhauls in the tunnel.

Additional work is expected to include the installation of new lighting.

Now the CDOT hopes to receive as much as $900 million in federal funding as a result of the recently approved Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, allowing it to plan out a series of transportation projects, including the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel work.

When exactly work will begin on the tunnel is not yet known: the Colorado Transportation Commission, tasked with overseeing spending on transportation projects in the state, is additionally putting together a 10-year blueprint coordinating all such projects.

The commission schedule is set to be released sometime next summer.

​By Garry Boulard

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