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Tips on how skiers can beat traffic snarls on I-70

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 3, 2008 at 7:05 p.m.

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Drivers on Interstate 70 cautiously make their way over Vail Pass, which received about 6 inches of snow overnight Wednesday.

Photo by Photos ByDarin McGregor / The Rocky

Drivers on Interstate 70 cautiously make their way over Vail Pass, which received about 6 inches of snow overnight Wednesday.

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Winter has returned to Interstate 70, where rush-hour level weekend ski traffic often meets Mother Nature in a most unfriendly way.

With billions of dollars in ideas for improvements but dwindling money to pay for them, the Colorado Department of Transportation will give travelers to the ski resorts and other winter destinations another season of resourceful but less-costly ways to keep traffic moving.

Some strategies are high tech but lead back to the same recommendation: find another time to be on the highway.

CDOT provides online access to real-time cameras and travel speeds, as well as roadside message signs advising about potential delays. All that is directed at informing drivers wondering whether to leave early or stay a little later.

"It's better to be sitting in a nice restaurant in Summit County killing some time than to be sitting in your car on the highway not moving," said Bernie Guevara, CDOT regional traffic engineer covering the I-70 mountain corridor.

Closures on I-70, whether for snow, ice or accidents, are frequent. In November, CDOT closed parts of the highway 18 times - five of them occurring over the Thanksgiving weekend. Guevara said CDOT's measures have helped cut the average closure time from 52 minutes last year to 27 minutes so far this year.

Flo Raitano, director of the I-70 Coalition, said there is more traffic on the highway in the summer, but weather is rarely a factor then. In winter, traffic tends to bunch together westbound on Saturday mornings and eastbound on Sunday afternoons as Front Range residents and visitors make their way up and back for weekend getaways.

"This past holiday weekend is the perfect example," Raitano said. "An overwhelming number of visitors to the high country wanting to get back down to the Front Range in a short period of time gets thrown a curve ball by Mother Nature in the form of four feet of snow at the Eisenhower- Johnson Memorial Tunnels."

The key to helping drivers, said Frisco Town Manager Michael Penny, is finding ways to get accurate real-time travel information to people at a time when it's useful to them - before they're on the highway stuck in traffic.

Penny said there are plans to make traffic information available on changeable signs at resort lift stations and by text messages to cell phones so skiers can decide whether to take a few more runs to let traffic calm down, or leave early to beat the rush.

To address truck incidents, CDOT has introduced a heavy- towing program and a pilot program to assist truckers in buying, installing and removing chains.

Operated on weekends and holidays, CDOT pays three crews with heavy-duty tow trucks to station along the highway between Floyd Hill and Vail Pass.

"It's not cheap," Guevara said. "We're paying as much as $390 an hour to have them over there. But that cuts down on the time for having to call them to the scene."

The trucks handled 58 calls for trucks last weekend.

On the road

Looking to drive I-70 into the mountains on the weekends? Here are some tips for surviving rush hour to the resorts.

* Leave early, stay late. This is the most basic tip. CDOT's hourly traffic counts at the Eisenhower Tunnel show the busiest times on the highway are Saturdays around 8 a.m. and Sundays from 2 p.m. onward. To beat the rush, leave by 6 a.m. Saturday. To avoid the Sunday crunch, stay for dinner and leave at 6 p.m.

* For those who don't mind going late, leave Saturday after noon. To beat the crowd back on Sunday, you'll have to leave by 1 p.m.

* If you're in Summit County, ask your restaurant, hotel or lounge manager to tune in local Channel 22, where the county runs live feeds from CDOT's 19 traffic cameras between Vail and Idaho Springs. It shows the real-time estimate of travel time to Denver along with weather conditions.

* Go online to CoTrip.org, CDOT's travel information page, for up-to-date closure information and real-time data, including a link that lets you read what's currently being displayed on all 20 overhead message signs along the corridor.

* On the drive home, jump on the U.S. 40 frontage road at Georgetown (exit 228) and stay with it until it merges back into I-70 east of Idaho Springs (exit 241). But be prepared for a gamble as traffic can back up there, too. You need to go slow through the towns and wait in line at the ramp meter at Idaho Springs.

Comments

  • December 3, 2008

    7:41 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    bunzzzomatic writes:

    Why pay the towing companies to sit? Why not auction off exclusive towing rights to the highest bidders and require them to have their equipment in place during peak periods? They could charge big rigs exorbitant towing fees, which would cause those drivers to avoid I-70 during heavy-traffic bad-weather periods.

  • December 3, 2008

    8:45 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    RR208 writes:

    CDOT must change the policy of shutting down the tunnel once each hour to let the haz-mat truck through during peak weekend rush hour times.
    This happens when Loveland pass closes.
    It contributed to the shut-down of the entire highway Sunday.

    (Other points: 1. Cotrip.org was down on Sunday & 2. The Georgetown side road is closed while they replace the bridge.)

  • December 3, 2008

    9:15 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rj1967 writes:

    Note to self: When colorado ski country usa tells us (in June) how lift ticket sales were down, remember how I-70 was clogged every weekend with skiers. Tell them to blow their snow somewhere else.

  • December 3, 2008

    9:48 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    WakeUpDenver writes:

    How about not allow truckers on I-70 during the peak weekend and holiday hours.......

    Back in the day truckers did not drive at all on the weekends.....

  • December 3, 2008

    10:26 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rj1967 writes:

    How about not allow truckers on I-70 during the peak weekend and holiday hours.......

    Excuse me, but the interstates were built for truckers, not a bunch of do gooder recreationalists. Wanna go skiing? Take a bus. I'm sure Truckers would love to make their deliveries without all the crap SUV drivers clogging things up.

    Its always the ski resorts and their skiers that want working stiffs to bend over. skrew that.)

  • December 3, 2008

    10:36 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    PastaBender writes:

    rj1967

    Well, the interstates were not created for truckers nor for the skiers ... it was built for ground transportation of military supplies ... see 'Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956' ...

    If you're going to harp on a subject, get your facts straight ...

  • December 4, 2008

    2:37 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    SteveFesch writes:

    It's a good thing we are pouring 20+ Billion into FasTracks. They still need another tax increase.

    Solution: Dump fastracks. Build bus rapid transit. The same could be done up I-70 using hybrid buses. Rail has already proven to be too expensive in this day and age. A state of the art hybrid bus runs about 500k. It's a fraction of the cost of rail. Plus buses are much more flexible. We could have a dozen or more going to each resort depending on demand. Heck everyone going up I-70 is going to one of 6 or so destinations. It's not rocket science. The problem with buses is it doesn't satisfy groups like RTDevelopment who want to build rail through neighborhoods and confiscate all the land along the corridors for development purposes. That is where the money is.

    I-70 is suffering as a result of the budget crunch and FasTracks.

  • December 4, 2008

    4:30 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Domino writes:

    The RTD FasTrax has nothing to do with I-70 traffic. This is like saying "Denver is spending too much money on Denver Center improvements, so Aurora must cut back on libraries."

    What we have is ski areas trying to sit back and wait for government to solve what they created. Let them hire their own bus services or tax themselves for rail service.

    We do have rail lines to Winter Park. Have them buy extra train cars and make combination deals on the rail and skiing. It is a Denver owned mountain park.

  • December 4, 2008

    6:58 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    redfive writes:

    Jetpacks!!!

  • December 4, 2008

    7:18 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    dlwr writes:

    If I remember correctly Georgetown has a check point set up during really busy road times, and you are not allowed to use the frontage road unless you show your drivers license and prove you live in the immediate area.

  • December 4, 2008

    7:53 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    ifyem writes:

    Uh DLWR, you are way off on that proposition. I used the frontage road in Gtown last summer on the most congested day of the year on I-70..Not a checkpoint in site, however the frontage road was just as bad after sitting forever at the stop signs near Dumont.

  • December 4, 2008

    8:41 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    UNV_ME writes:

    I-70 has been terrible during ski season, still is terrible during ski season and will always be terrible during ski season. We have to live with it.

  • December 4, 2008

    8:45 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    TheDenverB writes:

    "Cotrip.org was down on Sunday"

    big problem there. I have no idea what their deal is, but with more and more people having 'smart phones' that can connect to the internet, i would assume that is what crashed their server...

    everyone in traffic checking traffic updates. They CLEARLY need to get more server space.

  • December 4, 2008

    9:54 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    sldfkd writes:

    I agree with Domino. The ski resorts need to show some initiative and fix the problem they've created. I suggest requiring all the ski resorts to charge for parking, with the money going to CDOT. This would raise some money, while also encouraging skiers to carpool or ride the bus. Of course the ski resorts will never do this, since it would cause them to lose money. Maybe we could have tolls for the exit ramps that lead to ski resorts during peak hours. I don't know...