DENVER – Traffic counts through the Eisenhower Tunnel are on pace for their highest year ever – again.
More than 8.2 million vehicles this year have passed through the Interstate 70 tunnel, which runs beneath the Continental Divide about 60 miles west of Denver, according to data from the Colorado Department of Transportation this week. That's an average of 37,663 vehicles per day, the highest since the tunnel opened in 1973.
The high traffic counts are nothing new. Record-high traffic counts through the tunnel have been reached every year since 2013.
Some more nuggets from the data:
• Five of the highest 24-hour traffic counts in the tunnel's history have happened in 2019. The highest count so far has been on Friday, June 14, when 55,966 vehicles passed through the tunnel, good for second-most all-time.
• The other busiest days this year: Saturday July 6 (55,000); Sunday, Jan. 27 (54,720); Sunday July 28 (54,379); and Friday, Jan. 25 (54,222).
• One record set this year: The highest three-day weekend traffic count, with 161,793 vehicles on June 14-16. The weekends of Aug. 2-4 and July 5-7 also made the top 10 list.
• While the tunnel connects the Denver area with many of the state's ski areas, seven of the 10 busiest days in the tunnel have come during the summer months.
• The busiest day of all time remains Dec. 22, 2017, a Friday, when 56,986 vehicles passed through the tunnel.
