Boustead Tunnel East Portal, Colorado

The Boustead Tunnel opened in 1972, carrying water for 5.5 miles, under the Continental Divide at Hagerman Pass, from the Fryingpan River to Turquoise Lake, where it emerges through the tunnel’s east portal. The tunnel is part of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, a large-scale water capture and storage project, under construction from 1964 to 1981, by the Bureau of Reclamation. The project is similar to the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, which provided trans-divide water to eastern slope communities north of Denver, though in this case it serves cities on the southern front range, including Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and La Junta. A total of five reservoirs, 22 tunnels, and 87 miles of conduits are part of the system, on both sides of the Divide. But the Boustead Tunnel is the system’s main link over the Divide itself, carrying around 70,000-acre feet per year, which spills into a channel and flows towards Turquoise Lake.