Low snow or no snow, you can always count on I-70 ski traffic.
This past weekend, Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, was almost the busiest of the winter on the I-70 mountain corridor with 131,545 cars at the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels (the EJMT).
That was up a whopping 30% from the previous weekend with close to 30,000 additional cars in three days. That is like most of Summit County’s year-round population suddenly taking to the interstate.
This big jump in traffic came during a relatively quiet ski season on I-70. The busiest of the entire season so far was the weekend after New Year’s, Jan 2-4, with 133,932 vehicles in three days. That was slower than the previous year by a few thousand.
Also slower than last year was January with 465,807 cars in four weekends (12 days), not including the Monday of MLK Weekend. That is down more than 9% in a year and down about 7% in two years.
Four of five weekends this January have been slower than the corresponding weekend last year. The exception was MLK weekend, when last year the corridor was battered by Arctic cold and snow. (The five weekends in January aren’t full weekends. The fifth weekend in both bled into February.)
January 2025 vs January 2026 traffic (cars at EJMT)
- Weekend One… 135,002 vs. 133,932
- Weekend Two… 120,828 vs. 115,856
- Weekend Three (MLK weekend)… 128,185 vs. 154,031
- Weekend Four… 126,930 vs. 100,912
- Weekend Five… 136,364 vs. 131,545
These I-70 weekend tunnel counts brought to you by Dillon Ridge Liquors, just uphill from Exit 205 in Dillon.