Skip to main content

Colorado tunnels get funds for fire suppression system

The Colorado Transportation Commission has approved US$10 million to retrofit a fixed fire suppression system in the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels (EJMT) because there is no way for fire-fighters to safely and effectively respond to a fire. Located around 60 miles west of Denver, at an elevation of more than 11,000 feet, the EJMT is the highest vehicular tunnel in the world and carries an average of approximately 30,000 vehicles per day, or over ten million vehicles per year. Once the fire suppr
October 28, 2013 Read time: 1 min
The Colorado Transportation Commission has approved US$10 million to retrofit a fixed fire suppression system in the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels (EJMT) because there is no way for fire-fighters to safely and effectively respond to a fire.

Located around 60 miles west of Denver, at an elevation of more than 11,000 feet, the EJMT is the highest vehicular tunnel in the world and carries an average of approximately 30,000 vehicles per day, or over ten million vehicles per year.

Once the fire suppression system is in place, it would not be used to extinguish vehicle fires on its own, but to keep the fire cool enough to buy fire-fighters enough time to move the vehicle out of the tunnel before the flames become too hot.

Related Content

  • Knoxville chooses Siemens for city-wide streetlight retrofit
    September 20, 2017
    Siemens has been chosen by the City of Knoxville, Tennessee to retrofit nearly 30,000 streetlights with new energy efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The retrofit is estimated to cut the City’s streetlight operation budget in half by saving US$2 million annually in energy and maintenance costs and is expected to pay for itself in less than ten years.
  • Funding shortfall for US Interstate upgrades
    May 11, 2012
    Andrew Bardin Williams investigates tolling on the federal Interstate system as maintenance and upgrade requirements increasingly outpace funding The I-95 corridor through North Carolina is one of the most heavy trafficked interstates in the US, seeing upwards of 46,000 vehicles per day in some stretches-and North Carolina’s Department of Transportation (NCDOT) estimates this number will to rise to 98,000 vehicles per day by 2040. Along with the rest of the federal interstate system, the North Carolina str
  • Siemens streetlight program for US city aims to cut energy usage in half
    May 22, 2017
    Siemens is partnering with the City of Huntington Beach, California, to engineer, install and maintain a new 11,000 energy efficient streetlight system. The technology features LED lighting that aims to reduce energy consumption by over 50 per cent and create clearer illumination to help reduce vehicular accidents and increase safety for city residents.
  • Freight poses growing problem for city authorities
    March 3, 2017
    Wes Guckert considers possible solutions and countermeasures to the problems of increased freight deliveries in growing cities. In January 2016, the US Department of Transportation (USDoT) conducted a session on the SmartCity Challenge and Urban Freight and Logistics. This session was a follow-up to the USDoT report titled, Beyond Traffic 2045.