Show MOffAT T TUNNEL IS PROGRESSING GREAT BORE THROUGH MOUNTAINS MOUNTAINS MOUN MOUN- IS BEING PIERCED WITH RAPIDITY Progress to Date Date- 10 Per Cent Ahead of Original Plans Plana Colorado Bore Nearly a Third Complete Denver The Moffat tunnel piercing pierc ing the continental divide of the Rocky mountains west of here and andone andone andone railroad one of the worlds world's greatest bores borea is t. nearly third one completo complete i ind and nd is le 10 per cent rent ahead of at the tho time I I schedule set by the builders To date the pioneer or water tunnel tun tun- nel net has been bored feet from the east portal and 40 from the nest best portal or more than third one lof of ot the 6 mlle distance The main beading has penetrated James peak feet from the east portal and feet from the west The crosscut crosscut cross cut tunnels connecting ng the main and water bores at intervals or of from 1800 1300 to 1500 feet have reached a a to total total total to- to tal of feet Each of these crosscut crosscut crosscut cross cross- cut tunnels is approximately seventy seventy- five feet in length The full size railway tunnel has penetrated feet from the east cast and feet from the western portal At At present the work of at enlarging the main heading which is being drilled seven and one half by nine ninen will VIII n be is proceeding twice as fast as the work at the front At this ratio tunnel engineers estimate within a year this work will be abreast of the main heading The slowness of progress on the western end is accounted for by the fact that builders have encountered soft shale and dirt rather than solid rock This necessitates timbering very every foot of ot the way at a cost atmore of at more than per linear foot At Atthe Atthe Atthe the east portal solid rock was found after the first few hundred feet and enabled the contractors to speed speedy up the work materially That the work through the winter months will proceed even more rapidly rap rap- rapIdly idly than during the summer is the prediction by engineers Absence of visitors through the months when th the camps camps' are snowbound and the lessening likelihood of at workmen drifting from their jobs account for these theis prediction it was explained The men ar are comfortably housed in camps at each end of at the tunnel tun where stocks of provisions sufficient for three months are hand Each camp has a medical dispensary and hospital with a doctor and nurse in inconstant constant attendance Fatalities however however however how how- ever have been almost nil but one one death resulting from accident during the seventeen months the work has bee i in progress progress Terms of the contract call for the completion of ot the project not later than July 1927 The opening of at the tunnel to railroad traffic will start the development of at a vast tract of virgin territory in northwestern Colorado Colorado Colorado Colo Colo- rado a region heretofore not re reached ched by railroad lines In this territory lie vast coal deposits oil shale beds and oil as yet untapped except for one or two isolated wells that have bave come in for flows estimated at several thousand barrels a day 1 |