Traffic through the Eisenhower Tunnel set a new record last month, with vehicles eclipsing the 1 million mark for the first time in December.
The December 2008 traffic count of 1,015,899 vehicles eclipsed the December 2007 count of 941,955, said Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman with the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The 2007 December count at the tunnel likely would have eclipsed 1 million, but a severe winter storm hit the Colorado mountains the last two days of that year and shut down portions of Interstate 70, Stegman said.
Traffic through the tunnel, which passes under the Continental Divide at about 11,000 feet, has steadily climbed over the years.
In its first, abbreviated, year — it opened in March 1973 — 2.2 million vehicles passed through the tunnel, and average daily traffic was 7,435, according to the transportation department.
In 2008, 11.5 million streamed through the tunnel and daily traffic averaged 31,559 vehicles.
The tunnel’s busiest year remains 2007 when 11.7 million used both bores — east and west — of the Eisenhower. The average daily count in 2007 was 32,260. The busiest month on record at the tunnel was set in 2007, when 1,199,486 flowed through in July.
Still, 2008 can boast a couple of records for the tunnel.
This past year is the only year in which five different months — January, March, July, August and December — all saw more than 1 million vehicles pass, according to CDOT records.
The 1 million vehicles that passed through in January 2008 were the first to eclipse that level for that month.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
