VAIL, Colo. — It’s a race against time for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) on Vail Pass. Crews are trying to finish the current phase of a multi-phase improvement plan on the pass before Thanksgiving and the start of the heavy ski traffic season on Interstate 70.
It’s a $200 million makeover of Vail Pass, which includes three major improvements.
“It’s a windy, steep mountain section of the interstate,” said Karen Berdoulay, CDOT program engineer for Region 3. “And we're really looking to make it more reliable.”
Drivers anxiously await those improvements.
"Any improvement on the road, especially for safety, I totally support that,” said Susie Harvey, who has lived near Vail Pass for eight years.
CDOT is spending $200 million, including $60 million in federal grants, to improve Colorado’s most prominent pass.
The first of the three major improvements is the addition of a third lane halfway up the pass in the eastbound direction, which would improve ski traffic heading home from Aspen and Vail toward Denver.
“The roadway on I-70 in this section is steeper than the standard 5%,” Berdoulay said. “The roadway in some sections is 7%, so that's very challenging for our slow-moving vehicles and the larger vehicles. And so this provides more space for separation of those slow-moving vehicles from our faster cars.”
The second of the major improvements is carving out portions of the mountain to straighten three of the most dangerous curves in the westbound lanes, which are often given the nickname "The Narrows."
“So, this curve that we're seeing down here does not meet 65-mile-an-hour design standards,” Berdoulay said. “And also the existing bridge is substandard and needs to be replaced. I’m not sure what the standards were when this was originally built in the early 80s and late 70s, but certainly, we know now that this isn't working for the roadway. The crashes have been significant.”
In fact, the curves on Vail Pass see more crashes per volume than any other portion of I-70.
The third part of this massive improvement project up Vail Pass is the multi-use recreational trail. Users say some of it is uncomfortably close to I-70, so CDOT is moving portions of it off the highway, making it more scenic and user-friendly.
“Also, we’re widening the path from about 8-10 feet to 12 feet,” Berdoulay said. “So this path is one of the most used paths in Colorado, and so we're making accommodations for that higher volume of users.”
CDOT says the completion date is 2025, and it is on schedule.
“Absolutely on schedule,” Berdoulay said. “Actually, we've been working really hard. We have a very small construction window with doing work at 10,000 feet on Vail Pass. But they've been working six days a week. And so, we're right on track with where we plan to be.”