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

  • June 26, 2018
    Fasten your seatbelts: it’s going to be a bumpy ride
    A spat has broken out between two major US transportation organisations over how best to pay for road use: the ATA says tolls are ‘fake funding’ while IBTTA has scorned ‘scare tactics and falsehoods’… Much has been made of the state of US roads: everyone agrees that funding is needed – but who should pay? And how? Chris Spear, president and CEO of American Trucking Associationsm(ATA), believes finance is facing a cliff edge: the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), historically the primary source of federal revenue
  • April 12, 2016
    PSA Peugeot Citroën takes a stake in car-sharing company
    French car company PSA Peugeot Citroën has become a shareholder in peer-to-peer car-sharing start-up Koolicar, with an investment of US$10.6 million (€18 million), alongside investment fund MAIF Avenir, Koolicar's partner since 2010. Now active in around 40 French cities, with over 60,000 registered users, Koolicar started car-sharing operations back in 2012 and claims it offers unique and innovative technology for peer-to-peer car rental in Europe. Based on a connected box that can be fitted on any typ
  • January 19, 2012
    ITS industry needs more effort to get to the future
    Eric Sampson, visiting professor at Newcastle University and City University London and ambassador for ITS-UK, provides a retrospective on the last couple of decades and takes a look at what the ITS industry still needs to do to get to where it needs to be
  • June 25, 2014
    Study ‘shows more bicyclists on road means fewer collisions’
    A study of cycle versus vehicle accidents carried out by the University of Colorado, Denver (CU Denver) has found that the chance of collision decreased with more cyclists. The risk of accident was relatively high at intersections with less than 200 cyclists per day. “Anywhere above this threshold is where we are seeing the largest safety benefits,” said co-author Wesley Marshall, PhD, PE, assistant professor of civil engineering at CU Denver’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. The reasons for