Show MOFFAT TUNNEl IS PROGRESSING j GREAT BORE THROUGH MOUNTAINS MOUN MOUN- y IS BEING PIERCED WITH RAPIDITY Progress to Date 10 Per Cent Ahead 1 of Original Plans Col Colorado rado I Bore Nearly early N. N a Third Complete 30 S Denver The The Moffat tunnel piercing piercing pierc pierc- ing irig the continental divide of the Rocky mountains west of here and andone andone andone railroad one of the worlds world's greatest bores is nearly third one-third complete I t and md is 10 per cent ahead of the time schedule set by the builders To date the pioneer or water tunnel tunnel tun tun- nd nel has been bored feet from S the east portal and from the west est portal or more than third one-third of the mile 6 distance The main heading bending has penetrated James peak feet from the east portal and feet from the west The crosscut crosscut crosscut cross cross- cut tunnels conn connecting the main and water bores at intervals or from 1300 to 1500 feet have reached 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 feer from the east and feet from the western portal At present the work of enlarging the main heading which is being drilled seven and one-half one by nine I will be feet is proceeding twice I as fast a as the work at the front At this ratio tunnel engineers estimate I 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 reck This necessitates necessitates' timbering every foot of the wa way at a cost of more than per linear foot At Atthe Atthe Atthe the east portal solid rock was found after the first few hundred feet and andI I enabled the contractors to speed up the work materially That the york work through the winter months will proceed even more rap rap- than during the summer is the he prediction by engineers Absence of visitors through the months when the camps are snowbound and th the lessening likelihood of workmen drifting from their jobs account for theis prediction it was explained The men are arc Comfortably housed in camps at each end of the tunnel where stocks of provisions sufficient for three months are arc at hand Each I camp has a medical dispensary and hospital with a doctor and nurse in inconstant inconstant inconstant constant attendance Fatalities however however however how how- ever have been almost nil but one death resulting from accident during the seventeen months the work has bee in progress Terms of the contract call for the completion of the project not later than July 1927 The opening of the tunnel to railroad traffic will start the development of a vast tract of virgin territory in northwestern Colorado Colorado Colo Cob rado a region heretofore not reached 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 come in for flows estimated at several thousand barrels a day |