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Sunday, December 22, 2024

Colorado escorting vehicles through I-70 rock slide stretch

A pilot car program is now taking motorists along a single lane of Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon as work continues to reopen the stretch of roadway that was damaged by rockfall last week.

According to the Colorado Department of Transportation, the pilot car program will run from 4 p.m. to 9 a.m. each day until further notice. There is a 10-foot width restriction in place on oversized commercial motor vehicles.

As of Monday, CDOT reported that work crews have brought down 400 tons of rock at the site, which was shut down completely on Feb. 15 due to two separate rock fall events.

In a news release issued Feb. 21 by the agency, the pilot car configuration for eastbound traffic is routed into one lane starting at Exit 116 at Glenwood Springs all the way to Grizzly Creek rest area where the pilot car picks up traffic. Westbound traffic is placed into one-lane starting at Exit 129 at 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.

The canyon will be closed to all traffic for continued roadwork from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily 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.

CDOT has several alternate routes for westbound traffic through the canyon. They can be found at CoTrip.org.