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

  • Auckland considers road user charging to plug funding shortfall
    October 29, 2014
    Auckland, New Zealand, faces a US$9.5 billion transport funding gap to build the fully-integrated transport network set out in the 30-year Auckland Plan that includes new roads, rail, ferries, busways, cycle-ways and supporting infrastructure needed to cope with a population set to hit 2.5 million in the next three decades. If Auckland opts to pay for the fully-integrated Auckland Plan, Auckland Council officials claim the transport network congestion is expected to improve by 20 per cent over the next 1
  • Tunnel simulators vital for real world tunnel management
    January 23, 2012
    Guillaume Ponsar, tunnel safety engineer with Egis Road Operation, writes about the advantages to be gained from the use of tunnel simulators. Major tunnel disasters over the last decade and more have shown how swiftly and badly a simple crash or fire may evolve should the wrong actions be taken by control room operators or traffic managers. Global safety issues and the reactions of operations staff have now become the principal concerns for Operations and Maintenance (O&M) service providers. As a result, n
  • Airborne traffic monitoring - the future?
    March 1, 2013
    A new frontier in the quest to monitor road traffic is opening up… but using airborne drones to reduce the jams comes with some thorny issues. Chris Tindall reports. Imagine if you could rely on a system that provided all the data you needed to regulate traffic flow, route vehicles and respond swiftly to emergencies for a fraction of the cost of piloting a helicopter. That system exists, but as engineers and traffic managers start to explore the potential of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – more commonly k
  • Use of ITS technology grows more prevalent in safety applications
    January 30, 2012
    Transportation agencies and governments are using ITS technology to protect critical infrastructure from terrorist attack and other threats to economic security and public safety. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. It is no secret that we live in a potentially dangerous world. Terrorism as seen on 9/11 in the United States, subsequent attacks in London, Moscow and Madrid and other acts of violence across the developing world have made vigilance the watchword for ensuring security. Key infrastructure is now bei