UPDATE: February 21, 2016, 7:17 p.m.
Press release from the Colorado Department of Transportation: Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon will reopen to traffic in a pilot car configuration at approximately 6 tonight. Pilot car operations will continue overnight until 9 a.m.Monday. Traffic delays up to one hour or more should be expected.
PILOT CAR CONFIGURATION: Eastbound traffic is routed into one-lane starting at Exit 116 (Glenwood Springs) all the way to Grizzly Creek rest area where the pilot car picks up traffic. The coned off lane is for Colorado State Patrol, emergency services vehicles, law enforcement and CDOT/contractor vehicles as needed. Westbound is placed into one-lane starting at Exit 129 (Bair Ranch) all the way to the east side of the Hanging Lake Tunnel bore where vehicles will be configured into the Pilot Car queue.
CANYON CLOSURES BEGINNING MONDAY:
Canyon Closed to traffic for continued work: 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
10 foot width restrictions in place on oversized CMV
Pilot Car escorts: 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. each day until further notice.
The Grizzly Creek, Hanging Lake and Shoshone rest areas will be closed for the duration of the pilot car operation. Bair Ranch (on the east side) and No Name (west side) rest areas will remain open. The Glenwood Canyon Bike Path remains closed as well. (Please note, local traffic coming from the west can travel as far as No Name; local traffic from the east can travel as far as Bair Ranch.)
Updates will continue to be posted on CDOT’s traveler information site at www.cotrip.org and recorded on the 511 phone line.
EARLIER: The Glenwood Canyon will be closed until at least Saturday as CDOT crews continue to repair the roadway after multiple rock slides earlier this week.
Today, crews brought down around 30 to 50 cubic yards of rock, with three boulders in the two to five ton range. To date, about 400 tons of rock have been mitigated from the site.
PILOT CAR CONFIGURATION: Eastbound traffic is routed into one-lane starting at Exit 116 (Glenwood Springs) all the way to Grizzly Creek rest area where the pilot car picks up traffic. The coned off lane is for Colorado State Patrol, emergency services vehicles, law enforcement and CDOT/contractor vehicles as needed. Westbound is placed into one-lane starting at Exit 129 (Bair Ranch) all the way to the east side of the Hanging Lake Tunnel bore where vehicles will be configured into the Pilot Car queue.
CANYON CLOSURES BEGINNING MONDAY:
Canyon Closed to traffic for continued work: 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
10 foot width restrictions in place on oversized CMV
Pilot Car escorts: 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. each day until further notice.
The Grizzly Creek, Hanging Lake and Shoshone rest areas will be closed for the duration of the pilot car operation. Bair Ranch (on the east side) and No Name (west side) rest areas will remain open. The Glenwood Canyon Bike Path remains closed as well. (Please note, local traffic coming from the west can travel as far as No Name; local traffic from the east can travel as far as Bair Ranch.)
Updates will continue to be posted on CDOT’s traveler information site at www.cotrip.org and recorded on the 511 phone line.
EARLIER: Glenwood Canyon will not open until late Saturday afternoon or Sunday, according to CDOT.
Workers brought a 10-foot boulder down this morning, which took out some safety fencing and increased the danger of smaller rocks falling. The reopening of Interstate 70 will depend on CDOT’s ability to clear the roadway and decrease mitigation, according to CDOT communications director Amy Ford.
EARLIER: CDOT was hoping to reopen Saturday. But poor weather has brought rain and hail, requiring more rock work.
The canyon was expected to be reopened Thursday afternoon but weather has gotten in the way of the work necessary to make travel safe. Crews are bringing in equipment and doing the work by hand. The Colorado Department of Transportation suspended the use of a helicopter due to wind and snow.
CDOT closed the canyon Monday night after two large rockslides occurred near Hanging Lake, about 8 miles east of Glenwood Springs. Another rockslide further west occurred on Thursday. Officials expect more of that as the freeze-thaw cycle continues.
“We are in an extreme situation I think,” said Amy Ford , director of communications for CDOT.
“We are very actively monitoring all of this area but you know it and I know it, as we all drive along it’s gorgeous, it’s beautiful and we’re talking thousands of feet of rock so we are going to keep a very active eye on the entire corridor.”
Crews are taking down loose rocks 1200 feet above the road by hand and the use of airbags. Additional fencing is also being installed.
CDOT estimates the repair work and damage will cost between $2 and $5 million. The agency will seek federal disaster relief.
When the canyon does reopen, only one lane will be open and a pilot car will lead westbound and eastbound cars through separately for about 6 miles … from the Hanging Lake tunnel to about Grizzly Creek.
EARLIER: CDOT says workers are doing everything they can to get I-70 ready for reopening Thursday, but it’s still a question mark.
The agency is removing rocks above a closed section of the interstate, and more rock is coming down than anticipated. I-70 east of Glenwood Springs has been closed since a major rockfall on Monday night.
A significant amount of traffic is being rerouted north including using Highway 40 through Steamboat Springs. Reporter Tom Ross is with the Steamboat Springs Pilot, and says convoys of trucks have been coming through town. “We have a stretch between Steamboat Springs and Hayden that has undergone significant rockfall mitigation,” he explained Wednesday afternoon, noting the irony. “And that’s due to some scary near misses by some huge boulders.” CDOT says it is keeping a close eye on that road. If I-70 is reopened Thursday, it will be one lane for both eastbound and westbound traffic as repair work continues.
