Summer road work season is (almost) here.
Starting April 28, CDOT returns to Vail Pass for a fourth summer on its $325 million upgrade, continuing work on eastbound auxiliary lanes, a new overpass bridge, and avalanche fencing just west of the summit.
“The fencing will help stabilize the snowpack and catch smaller, initial snowslide movements,” CDOT writes in a press release. “The system will allow CDOT and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center to safely monitor and manage a known avalanche slide path and prevent extended interstate closures.”
This project is now in the home stretch. CDOT estimates it will be done by December 2026.
Rebuilding Vail Pass has been a monster undertaking. In 2021 a study said it would cost $700 million for CDOT’s entire wish list. Since then, work has been scaled back, especially the eastbound auxiliary lane, although CDOT plans to extend it all the way into East Vail when it gets the money. And then there’s the Vail Pass rest area – now two years overdue and still with no timeline for opening.
CDOT has said time and again conditions and elevation complicate work at 10,600 feet. Even avalanche fencing requires rock scaling and helicopters, which means several weeks of interstate and recpath closures starting in early June.
New this summer CDOT is giving you a better way to learn about lane closures before they happen. Text “vailpass” to 21000. That’s all you need to do – updates go straight to your phone.
More details on every inch of asphalt and steel coming to Vail Pass this summer:
- – 2.7 miles of eastbound auxiliary lane (MP 187.3 – 190)… In early May, traffic will be shifted onto temporary pavement into a barrier-separated, head-to-head configuration in the current westbound lanes. This shift will make room for the significant wall work and roadway widening needed for the eastbound auxiliary lanes.
- – Avalanche prevention fencing (MP 186 aka the Narrows)… Fence installation work will require 20-minute traffic holds of I-70 in both directions and the Vail Pass Recreation Path. Traffic holds will begin in early June and occur Monday through Thursday between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Subsequent traffic holds throughout the summer will be intermittent.
- – Wildlife crossings… Substantial work will continue on five wildlife underpasses, including two for large animals and three for smaller animals under I-70 between MPs 187 and 190. CDOT also installs deer fencing.
- – Eastbound bridge (MP 185)… This bridge is the counterpart to the new westbound bridge at MP 185.2, completed in 2023. Last summer, crews demolished the old westbound I-70 bridge and built the new bridge foundation, abutments, columns and piers for the eastbound I-70 bridge. This season, crews will set girders and build the bridge deck.