Improvements made to protect Colorado drivers traveling through Floyd Hill

Drivers traveling along Interstate 70 through Floyd Hill in Colorado's foothills will notice some improvements.

CBS News Colorado got a behind-the-scenes look at crews wrapping up the eastern section of I-70 at Floyd Hill. This is between Evergreen and Idaho Springs. 

The Colorado Department of Transportation, also known as CDOT, says the area will soon be a 55 miles per hour zone. This is the safest speed going through there. More than 1,000 crew members are flattening out curves and adding shoulders on Floyd Hill so drivers can safely pull over.

The I-70 Floyd Hill Project will:

• Add a third westbound I-70 travel lane in this two-lane bottleneck to improve travel time reliability. This new lane will be a full-time, tolled Express Lane from just west of Homestead Road (Exit 247) to Colorado Blvd./Idaho Springs (Exit 241).
• Change the alignment of I-70 from the middle of Floyd Hill to the Veterans Memorial Tunnels to straighten roadway curves, which will improve safety and sight distance.
• Rebuild ten bridges due to heavy usage and wear and tear.
• Add a two-mile section of frontage road between the US 6 and Hidden Valley/Central City Parkway interchanges, which will improve resiliency and emergency response.
• Move the current left-merge US 6 on-ramp to westbound I-70 to the Hidden Valley/Central City Parkway (Exit 243) interchange to improve safety and operations.
• Build an extended on-ramp from US 6 onto eastbound I-70 to give slow-moving vehicles more room to merge.
• Improve traffic flow at interchanges and intersections by adding roundabouts on US 40 at County Road 65 (Exit 248) and Homestead Road (Exit 247), and at the I-70 and Hidden Valley/Central City Parkway (Exit 243) interchange.
• Improve the Clear Creek Greenway trail and resurface it with concrete.
• Implement environmental mitigation to enhance wildlife connectivity, air and water quality, stream conditions and recreation.
• Install two permanent air quality monitors.

Crews say bottlenecking continues to be the biggest issue.

"Anyone that travels on the corridor knows this is a notorious spot in the westbound direction for bottlenecking that occurs during those busy travel days," said Kirt Kionka, Floyd Hill project director for CDOT. "The Floyd Hill project is not only alleviating that bottlenecking that is created at the top of Floyd Hill, but it's also providing much-needed safety improvements on the corridor."

In the future:

• New westbound I-70 Express Lane being built between west of Homestead Road (Exit 247) to Colorado Boulevard/Idaho Springs (Exit 241)
• A new 115-foot-tall bridge that will carry westbound I-70 traffic in a new alignment that shifts the highway south into the hillside above Clear Creek
• Braided configuration of eastbound and westbound I-70
• New frontage road connecting US 6 to the Hidden Valley/Central City Parkway (Exit 243) interchange

Westbound I-70 will be in its new alignment by the end of 2027, and eastbound I-70 will be in its new alignment by the end of 2028, with the entire Project complete in 2029. The adjusted completion date, extending from 2028 to 2029, provides the Project team with additional time to refine the design and timeline to address seasonal environmental constraints.

CDOT says the 2025 cost to deliver the Project as scoped is now $905 million.