Don't Let This Weekend's I-70 Closure Put A Hitch In Your Giddy-Up
DENVER (CBS4)- It's an exciting weekend for rodeo fans in Colorado. And it's also the beginning of a huge closure on Interstate 70 that may have some looking for the best route.
"We're going to find out who's the best of the best," Paul Andrews, President & CEO of the National Western Complex, said. "The world's top-ranked cowboys and cowgirls of rodeo are in Denver for Rodeo All-Star Weekend."
Yet, they're riding into town during a not-so-exciting construction project.
"We know it's going to be a little more crowded than normal," Andrews added.
Beginning at 10 p.m. Friday, the Colorado Department of Transportation is completely closing a three-mile stretch of I-70, between Colorado Boulevard and I-270, until early Monday morning. Crews are replacing bridge beams as part of the interstate's redesign. The National Western Event Center is just west of the closure, yet it could put a hitch in a rodeo-goer's giddy up.
"We'll obviously be announcing to our patrons that they need to be actively looking at other options [to get here]," Andrews said.
When it comes to traffic and roadblocks, this closure certainly isn't the National Western's first rodeo.
"We have police out here that guide traffic," Andrews explained. "We have security and we have parking specialists that will be guiding traffic around the entire area."
Rodeo organizers are confident they'll be able to manage the impacts of the interstate closure, and hope it won't keep rodeo fans from filling the stands this Friday and Saturday.
"Rodeo All-Star Weekend only comes once a year and it's only in Denver," he said. "There's plenty of fun to be had."
The full closure of I-70 this weekend is the first of four planned closures during the Central 70 Project.