And no, the tunnels weren't built as a secret portal for lizard people living in a city beneath the airport. While we do love a good conspiracy theory about the airport, this is not the case (this time).
Denver International Airport has finished building the 2,050-foot-long, 11-foot-diameter tunnel to help with the winter weather. Called the West Gates Pond Expansion Project, the project was focused on adding more storage ponds for the de-icing fluid, improving storm drainage, and adding new pads for planes to park on while being de-iced before takeoff.
"It doesn't change the deicing process itself, but what it will allow us to do is to be able to collect the deicing fluid for more aircrafts as we grow and as flight numbers increase," said senior vice president for sustainability at DIA, Scott Morrissey.
"What this project allows us to do is, as the airport continues to grow, it gives us more capacity to be able to deice and the more capacity to be able to manage that deicing fluid in the best environmental plan that we can," Morrissey added.
The main tunnel runs beneath one of the runways and surrounding taxiways, and there are six additional tunnels of different sizes. The airport has stated that the tunnels will not interfere with daily airport operations.
A secret portal to the underworld? A hole dug by Camp Green Lake? A sandworm was summoned?
— Denver Int'l Airport (@DENAirport) September 10, 2024
None of the above. Our sustainability team is busy below the surface. pic.twitter.com/AALBoSK8tx
