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You are going to build two four-lane highways through New Mexico and Arizona. Colorado needs to be able to compete with our neighboring states. We do not want to take anything away from them. We do not want them to get way out ahead of us, either, because these interstate highways are going to be very attractive highways for the East and West to travel on. Colorado held several meetings to convince reluctant Utah officials they would benefit from a freeway link between Denver and Salt Lake City. Utah officials expressed concerns that, given the terrain between these cities, this link would be difficult to build.
They later expressed concerns that the construction would drain resources from completing Interstate Highways they deemed to have a higher priority. In March , Colorado officials succeeded in convincing Utah officials with the state legislature passing a resolution supporting a link with Denver. The two states jointly issued a proposal to the U. Congress approved the extension of I; however, the route still had to be approved by the representatives of the U.
Military representatives were concerned that plans for this new highway network did not have a direct connection from the central U. Military planners approved the extension, but moved the western terminus south to Cove Fort , using I as part of a link between Denver with Los Angeles instead of Salt Lake City. Utah officials objected to the modification, complaining they were being asked to build a long and expensive freeway that would serve no populated areas of the state.
After being told this was the only way the military would approve the extension, Utah officials agreed to build the freeway along the approved route. The first Colorado portion of I opened to traffic in The majority of the alignment through Denver was completed by The Mousetrap reused some structures that were built in , before the formation of the Interstate Highway system.
The last piece east of Denver opened to traffic in Planning on how to route the freeway over the Rocky Mountains began in the early s. The project was originally called the Straight Creek Tunnel, after the waterway that runs along the western approach. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Colorado Governor Edwin C. Construction on the first bore of the tunnel was started on March 15, One of the biggest setbacks was the discovery of fault lines in the path of the tunnel that were not discovered during the pilot bores.
Further complicating construction was that the boring machines could not work as fast as expected at such high altitudes, and the productivity was significantly less than planned.
The frustration prompted one engineer to comment, "We were going by the book, but the damned mountain couldn't read". Initially this tunnel was used for two-way traffic, with one lane for each direction. The amount of traffic through the tunnel exceeded predictions, and efforts soon began to expedite construction on the second tube the Johnson bore , which was finished on December 21, At the time, this figure set a record for the most expensive federally aided project. The tunnel construction became unintentionally involved in the women's rights movement when Janet Bonnema was accepted for an engineering technician position in the construction of the Straight Creek Tunnel in Bonnema was restricted from entering the tunnel itself, however, due to the miners' superstition that women who entered underground mines and tunnels would bring bad luck.
Bonnema entered the tunnel for the first time on November 9, , prompting 66 workers to temporarily walk off the job; most returned the next day. She continued with the project until the tunnel opened. While designing the Eisenhower Tunnel, controversies erupted over how to build the portions over Vail Pass and Glenwood Canyon. After the U. Secretary of Agriculture refused to grant the easement, the engineers agreed to follow the existing route across Vail Pass. The engineers added infrastructure to accommodate wildlife, and had significant portions of the viaducts constructed offsite and lifted in place to minimize the environmental footprint.
Glenwood Canyon has served as the primary transportation artery through the Rocky Mountains, even before the creation of U. Railroads have used the canyon since and a dirt road was built through the canyon in the early 20th century. With the Eisenhower Tunnel finished, the last remaining obstacle for I to be an interstate commercial artery was the two lane, non-freeway portion in Glenwood Canyon.
Construction had started on this section in the s with a small section opening to traffic in Engineers scrapped the original plans and started work on a new design that would minimize additional environmental impacts. This required using special and coordinated blasting techniques. A Denver architect who helped design the freeway proclaimed, "Most of the people in western Colorado see it as having preserved the canyon.
The freeway was finally completed on October 14, , in a ceremony covered nationwide. However, newspapers in western Colorado celebrated the end of the frustrating traffic delays. For most of the final 10 years of construction, only a single lane of traffic that reversed direction every 30 minutes remained open in the canyon.
One newspaper proudly proclaimed "You heard right. For this reason, the system was proclaimed to be complete. When first approved, the extension of I from Denver to Cove Fort was criticized in some area newspapers as a road to nowhere; [41] an information liaison specialist with the U. The Eisenhower Tunnel alone is credited with saving up to an hour from the drive across the state.
The freeway is credited with enhancing Colorado's ski industry. The ski resort town of Vail did not exist until I began construction, with developers working in close partnership with the Department of Transportation. The towns and cities along the corridor have experienced significant growth, luring recreational visitors from the Denver area.
As one conservationist lamented, I "changed rural Colorado into non-rural Colorado". One accident at the Mousetrap , a complex interchange, had national ramifications.
On August 1, , a truck carrying six torpedoes for the U. Navy overturned. The situation was made worse as no one answered at the phone number provided with the cargo, and an unknown liquid was leaking from one of the torpedoes. It took more than three hours before any military personnel arrived on the scene, U. Army personnel from a nearby base. The incident left thousands of cars stranded and Denver's transportation network paralyzed for about eight hours.
Approximately 50 residents in the area were evacuated. Construction began in several phases in and the last bridge was dedicated in CDOT plans to rebuild the 1. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the section of Interstate 70 in Colorado. For the entire route, see Interstate Colorado State Highways Interstate U. State Scenic.
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See also: Interstate 70 in Utah. Main article: Eisenhower Tunnel. Colorado portal U. Roads portal. Colorado Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on May 26, Retrieved February 16, Yarmouth, ME: DeLorme. Archived from the original on February 6, Retrieved February 22, Retrieved April 1, Summer Public Roads. Retrieved February 15, Retrieved March 27, Flat Iron Construction Company. Retrieved April 20, Retrieved August 9, Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved April 30, Burlington's Zephyrs.
Buena Vista Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on October 30, Retrieved June 13, Ask the Rambler. Retrieved June 7, Retrieved June 15, Retrieved February 17, Retrieved July 1, National Park Service. Retrieved July 21, Archived from the original on September 8, Retrieved September 21, Rocky Mountain News. June 29, Archived from the original on July 17, Colorado Tourism Office.
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