Connaught Tunnel (British Columbia)

The Connaught Tunnel is a railway tunnel in the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. He is from Calgary ( Alberta ) and Revelstoke ( British Columbia ) on the transcontinental main line and crosses under the Rogers Pass and the Mount Macdonald in the Selkirk Mountains.

The 8082 meter long tunnel is Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, the Governor General of Canada, named. It was built because the track over the pass with time was too steep for longer and longer freight trains. The tunnel has a gradient of 0.95 %, which is entirely straight, which means that one can see from a tunnel entrance, the light at the other end.

The project was announced in February 1913 and on July 1, 1913 was awarded the contract to the construction company " Foley Bros. Welch and Stewart ." From a small auxiliary tunnel several side tunnels were drilled to the actual main tunnel. This allowed the same time be built in several places. The construction company promised a monthly advance of 270 meters and began on 2 April 1914, the works. The tunnel was completed before the originally set date and traveled for the first time on 16 December 1916. He was the longest railway tunnel in North America.

The construction costs amounted to 5.5 million Canadian dollars. Another three million were spent on it to relieve the 23.3 km long route over the pass and to build a new access route to the tunnel portals and avalanche barriers with a length of 6 kilometers. Overall, the distance shortened by 6.9 kilometers.

Problems with the operation prepared the vent, loose rocks and wet rails, which brought the trains to slide. Later, the tunnel was lined with concrete and got a better ventilation system. The original two-lane tunnel was in 1959 reduced to one lane; thanks to the larger clearance profile could pass through the tunnel higher freight trains.

1988 of 90 meters below, and 14.7 -mile Mount Macdonald Tunnel was opened to complement the Connaught Tunnel. The operation is usually controlled so that only eastward moving trains use the Connaught Tunnel, while trains heading west through the Mount Macdonald Tunnel.

  • Railway tunnel
  • Rail ( Canada )
  • Transport structure in British Columbia
  • Built in the 1910s
  • Selkirk Mountains
  • Tunnel in Canada
  • Columbia - Shuswap Regional District
Rogers Pass (British Columbia) Revelstoke, British Columbia Mount-Macdonald-Tunnel
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