Categories
Travel

A Tale of Two Red Lights (at the Eisenhower Tunnel)

If we plan to ski during the weekend we’ll usually drive up and stay Friday night to avoid the hassle of Saturday and Sunday morning traffic jams (or waking up a crazy hours).

This weekend we hit some slowdowns and ‘packs’ on I-70 westbound but we neared the tunnel and were home free…

…or so we thought. At 9 PM we heard the siren and saw the red lights flip at the Eisenhower Tunnel. Bummer. Either there was an accident, or they’re doing their hourly closing of the tunnel to let hazmat trucks through.

Red lights at the Eisenhower Tunnel
Red lights at the Eisenhower Tunnel

After 10 minutes we saw two State Troopers, lights on, cruise through the tunnel. Presumably there was indeed an accident or no, they’re just checking to make sure all trucks got through.

Neither.

No trucks went through (they were all going over US 6 from what I saw). The stoplight turned back to green. We were at the front of the stop, so we cruised on through the very empty, very eerie tunnel.

Empty Eisenhower Tunnel
Empty Eisenhower Tunnel

Only to be greeted by two State Patrol cars on the other side. For pacing.

State Patrol Pace Cars on I-70 Westbound
State Patrol Pace Cars on I-70 Westbound

Yes, pacing. At 9 PM. On a Friday. With almost no snow on the roads and plenty of traction. We were forced to go down the other side of the tunnel with hundreds of our now-close friends at 35-45 miles per hour.

How is this a good use of time and money?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.