Intermittent Traffic Stops Planned On I-70 Starting Wednesday
CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - The Colorado Department of Transportation wants drivers to know about planned traffic stops on Interstate 70 starting Wednesday. Crews will stop traffic near the Idaho Springs exit for rock scaling.
Operations will start at 9 a.m. and run until 3 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday as well as the following Mondays through Thursdays the weeks of Dec. 9 and Dec. 16. Traffic will stop in both directions for 20 minutes as rocks are loosened and cleared from the roadway.
Work will begin near mile marker 239 on the west end of Idaho Springs. The section was planned for rock fall mitigation next spring. Due to the early snow storms and extra moisture this fall, the scaling work must be done as soon as possible to prevent possible rock slides.
On Dec. 9, crews will also scale and drill the rock face next to westbound I-70 near mile marker 236, just east of Dumont, where the rock slide happened last week.
The slide happened during a major storm that continued to produce impressive snow totals, complicating matters near the Colorado mountain town.
That work will be done in preparation of blasting scheduled during the day time on Dec. 18. When blasting occurs, I-70 will be closed in both directions in this location for a few hours.
"Traffic queues will then be cleared before vehicles are again stopped and the process of stopping and releasing traffic repeats. This work will continue Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day until complete," CDOT stated on Tuesday.
LINKS: COTrip.org | codot.gov/travel
