Goodbye Colorado I-70 mountain traffic holds, hello bridge work; Floyd Hill Project reaches milestone

After three years of nearly nonstop construction, the Colorado Department of Transportation's Floyd Hill Project has reached its halfway mark. The agency says it's a major milestone for the $905 million effort to improve one of the busiest stretches of Interstate 70 in the state. 

The I-70 Floyd Hill Project spans an eight-mile section of the mountain corridor between Evergreen and Idaho Springs. Improvements include adding a third westbound express lane, straightening roadway curves, replacing aging bridges, and improving traffic flow and safety throughout the corridor.

"I think we're getting close to a million man-hours on the project," Project Director Kurt Kionka said.

The work has included extensive rock blasting, lane closures and traffic delays, all aimed at improving travel through the mountain corridor.

"We're bringing everything up to a 55-mph design, so from a driver perspective, it's going to feel much better, much safer as you go through here," Kionka said during a tour of the construction site Wednesday afternoon.

Despite challenges posed by weather and difficult terrain, CDOT officials say construction remains on schedule.

"We've been hitting our milestones and meeting our goals," Kionka said.

The milestone comes after crews completed major excavation work, including moving approximately 750 tons of rock. According to CDOT, major rock blasting operations are now complete, eliminating the need for the regular traffic holds that frustrated many drivers.

"We are grateful to the public for their patience," CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said. "It is hard to deal with things like 15-minute rock blasts on as busy and essential a corridor as this one."

Construction efforts are now focused on building several new bridges, including a 115-foot-tall structure that will eventually carry westbound traffic on a new highway alignment. 

"We're doing it over live traffic up in the air, and that makes it so we don't have to close traffic during construction," Kionka explained.

Drivers will continue traveling beneath the structures while crews build the bridges in sections.

"So, you'll start seeing it come out over the next year," Kionka said.

While construction will continue for several more years, transportation officials say motorists should begin seeing fewer traffic disruptions now that the most intensive blasting work is finished.

"Traffic impacts are going to be better because we're not going to have those traffic holds consistently throughout the week, so that's something to celebrate," Kionka said.

The project is expected to place westbound I-70 into its new alignment by the end of 2027 and eastbound I-70 into its new alignment by the end of 2028, with full completion planned for 2029.