I-70 mountain hall homepage gives Colorado drivers highlighted journey info

Anyone who has pushed Interstate 70 into Colorado’s excessive nation is aware of how rapidly a fun-filled ski day can flip into hours of gridlock site visitors or perhaps a full closure. Now, CDOT has launched a brand new on-line device designed particularly to assist mountain vacationers keep away from these complications.

The new I-70 Mountain Corridor webpage compiles the whole lot drivers must know, together with stay cameras, present highway situations, climate impacts, traction legal guidelines, and closure alerts, multi functional place. While a lot of the knowledge already existed on COTrip and the COTrip app, CDOT says this web page is supposed to be a streamlined, easy-to-find useful resource for one of many state’s most unpredictable stretches of highway.

“It started in early November,” Austyn Dineen, I-70 mountain hall communications supervisor for CDOT, mentioned. “All this data really lived in COTrip, but this is an additional resource for people to find information when they’re regularly traveling the corridor.”

The I-70 mountain hall (outlined because the stretch from Golden to Glenwood Springs) runs via steep elevation modifications, tight curves, and quickly shifting climate patterns. That mixture makes it among the most variable and doubtlessly harmful stretches, with Vail Pass being one of many primary offenders.  

“It’s still a mountain road,” Dineen mentioned. “It’s high elevation and has sharp curves; it can be extreme conditions out there, and that pulls resources from all over the state to keep the road as safe as possible.”

CDOT’s new webpage highlights that message with a easy tagline: “Mountain Road, Mountain Ready.” Drivers can now rapidly verify journey forecasts, see plow standing, and preview stay digital camera feeds earlier than heading out.

The company states that preparation is essential as a result of detours on this hall are sometimes prolonged and gradual.

“With I-70 being the only east-west major thoroughfare for the state, detour routes are lengthy,” Dineen mentioned. “They can be time-intensive.”

The new website can be designed with guests in thoughts, those that could not notice how quickly situations can shift in Colorado’s excessive nation.

“No matter if you live in Colorado or you’re traveling from out of state, it’s important for everyone to know I-70 is different,” Dineen mentioned.

CDOT says if this webpage proves profitable, it might create extra route-specific homepages for different closely traveled corridors that additionally expertise frequent climate and development impacts, like Highway 9, or Grand County mountain passes.