Cheaper and faster for Hazmat to wait at Eisenhower tunnel?

ac120 "Nice." Nice for who? It's not as neat and simple as it first appears. The issue of what hazmat loads (i.e., no oxidizer loads and fuel tankers; what about explosives?) could convoy together could be worked out, but other highway users would surely object to hourly delays and backups.

Let us (them) object. Does not take that long.
In addition to the two traffic signals, they should have a sign suggesting that people turn off engines for the five-minute wait.


There's federal rules/regulations converning hazmat loads in tunnels. There's parking for the trucks and cars held up (do you want to stop on the steep approaches? I don't);

Nothat steep. Vehicles and non hazmatrucks wait on the roadway all the time.


adding parking areas; backups, particularly in winter when the ski areas are operating (everyone idles while they wait--that costs $). Turning I-70 into a parking lot at the top of every hour (or every hour when there is a hazmat load) would mean squeezing all the other stakeholders for a few hazmat loads. CDOT has probably tossed the idea around.

All you need is one calamity, say, a tanker fire in a bore, and everyone would be using Loveland again--and greatfully--while the tunnel was repaired.

Hopefully gas and other hazmat drivers would not allow any problems by checking theirigs while waiting to go through the tunnel.
If one tunnel is impassable, they could make the other bore two-way.

You think repairs wouldn't cost a bundle? Throwing the baby out with the bathwater's never a good idea. Things are rarely just about economics.

Too, the climb to the bores and the descent from them, well, you use up fuel and brake linings either way.

Yes, but MUCH less time and fuel and brake wear.

I did not realize that over-height was too high for the tunnel. (They do have height sensors which sound a siren and iluminate a sign before the tunnel entrance.)
That would be a problem when the pass is closed for days.

Thank you.

 

ac120 : You've got most of it figured out. Why don't you do some homework then get with your state senator, CDOT, CSP, CDPHE, and CPUC? Initiate a cost-benefit study. Float your idea in a guest editorial in The Denver Post. Talk to executives at trucking companies, and business and community leaders in affected towns along I-70.

It affects everyone! Fuel use, pollution, truckers' time, costs, wear and tear, etc.

On an emergency bloodelivery (red lights and siren) they were going to hold hazmat until I gothrough. Even though blood is "hazmat" they would not let me go through withem.
Fortunately I arrived before the top of the hour, so I did not cause anyone to be delayed.

Buth.iso wasteful sending everyone over the pass and costly keeping the pass open when it is just a few minutes going through the tunnel.

I didn't mean drivers checking their rigs. I meant, as an example, not allowing both oxidizer and gasoline loads in the same convoy. And Class1 explosives in either bore? I doubt it.

Why not?
What is the chancexplosives wouldetonate? Virtually zero.
They don't ship detonators in the same shipment. And the detonator must be IN its explosive to cause the detonation.
Most dangerous is the gasoline tankers.


There are reasons for the rules, and they don't have a lot to do with convenience. Loveland is important enough to warrant its continued use. It's just not that bad when it's open. I think you'll find that Loveland is a vital route, one worth keeping.

I once had a 14' trailer

Why so tall? Can't have same volume with less height and longer?

with an expedited load of newspaper inserts going from Las Vegas to Aurora; late was not an option. I knew I wasn't going through the tunnel. In Grand Junction, I learned that Loveland would be closed for at least a day--they were shooting avalanches. I went down CO 9 from Frisco, through Breckenridge (the fancy ski folks in Breckenridge just love big trucks); turned onto U.S. 285 at Fairplay and drove into Aurora through the back door. Talk about fuel use and wear and tear on brake linings! I'd have preferred Loveland.

Yes. Buthe co$t of keeping Loveland cleared is a fortune.

 

Just close Loveland Pass when it is difficult to keep open and gets repeatedly snowed-in. Like the road through Rocky MountaiNation Park.
Thanks to Loveland Pass, my wife, from China, first goto see those beautiful views when we returned from a bloodelivery.


Wow. Just read abouthe idiot hauling explosives driving his truck too fast for conditions and blowing up the road and railroad track.
Lucky the moron did not kill others.
I'd expecthatruckers passing through the tunnels would be careful. The tunnels are also fairly straight.