diff --git a/traffic_router/tests/.env b/traffic_router/tests/.env
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..c7360fb82d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/traffic_router/tests/.env
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../.env
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/traffic_router/tests/docker-compose.yml b/traffic_router/tests/docker-compose.yml
index 0bdd2fcc88..9a076ed1ca 100644
--- a/traffic_router/tests/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/traffic_router/tests/docker-compose.yml
@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@ services:
       - traffic_router:/traffic_router
       - ../../junit:/junit
       - ../../.m2:/root/.m2
+    env_file: # makes TOMCAT_VERSION avaiable to the container
+      - .env
     environment:
       DEBUG_ENABLE: 'false' # Set to 'true' to debug the TR unit tests
       DEBUG_PORT: 8000