CDOT Promotes $700 Million I-70 Project After Hole Opens On Floyd Hill Overpass
DENVER (CBS4) - A 4 foot wide block of road surface broke away from the deck of a Interstate 70 overpass in the foothills Wednesday, creating a hole which damaged several vehicles and required more than a full day to repair.
It also created an opportunity for the state agency in charge of highways to stress the need to approve funding for replacing a stretch of roadway that includes the overpass.
Workers with the Colorado Department of Transportation responded to the westbound lanes of I-70 around sunrise Wednesday morning and initiated repairs. The hole developed at the bottom of Floyd Hill on an overpass over Highway 6. Vehicles in the right lane struck the hole with their passenger-side wheels while negotiating a fast left-hand turn after descending the hill at highway speeds.
A CBS4 staffer witnessed at least a half-dozen vehicles, including a tractor-trailer, seen on the shoulder of the road immediately after the overpass. Some of the passenger cars and trucks were on jacks and drivers were replacing tires. Other vehicles, apparently undriveable, were being loaded onto flatbed trucks.
"Emergency repairs have become the norm for this vital stretch of the I-70 mountain corridor with decades of extreme weather and heavy traffic use, plus there have been no sustainable improvements since this section was built in the early 1960s," said CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew in a CDOT press release. "Improvements can't come fast enough. CDOT is moving forward with procurement and a schedule to rebuild this eight-mile section of I-70 and we will be seeking a federal grant that is critically important to the movement of people and goods throughout the state and beyond."
Repairs were completed and the lane opened to traffic by 9 a.m. Thursday.
A representative with the state told CBS4 Friday that no liability claims had yet been filed by any motorists related to Wednesday morning's incident.
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Dignitaries gathered at the same overpass eight days ago to support the proposed upgrades to the interstate. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg joined Colorado's governor and several congressmen to promote funding approval for CDOT's I-70 project.
That project will improve an eight-mile stretch of I-70 from east of the Floyd Hill/Beaver Brook exit to the Veterans Memorial Tunnels east of Idaho Springs. It would include a redesign of the overpass at the Highway 6 interchange, elevating both lanes above the floor of the canyon.
In its press release, CDOT stated it has already committed $460 million in funding toward the project's anticipated $700 million price tag.
Any drivers who suffered vehicle damage Wednesday morning can visit the state's liability claims site to file a claim. Claims must be filed within 182 days.