What drivers heading to fall color areas and ski resorts west of Denver should know about the CDOT Floyd Hill construction project
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — The six-mile stretch of I-70 east of Idaho Springs is usually congested with commuter and tourist traffic, and fall brings even more congestion with people traveling to see the changing leaf colors and the popular ski slopes.
Since 2023, however, there has been another variable — the $900 million safety improvement project in that corridor.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is making various upgrades in the Floyd Hill area, and KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior is investigating whether construction will significantly affect the drive time to and from those leisure activities — particularly for southern Colorado residents.
“It is definitely noticeable,” said Alec Sills-Trausch, a local travel photographer who drives through the area often. But it also, like, isn’t terrible. It probably only adds maybe 8 to 10 minutes to your drive time.”
Stacia Sellers, a CDOT spokesperson for the Floyd Hill project, said that the agency has taken steps to minimize traffic impacts in the corridor.
“We are also committed to not having any lane closures as part of this project during peak travel times or over the weekends,” she explained. “If we do need to do any lane closures, traffic shifts, any of that, that takes place overnight on weekdays.”
But Sills-Trausch and Sellers added that southern Colorado drivers should experience fewer impacts because they won’t need to travel between Floyd Hill and Denver, where traffic is heaviest.
“I think if you’re coming from the Colorado Springs area, it would make more sense to go towards US 285 onto Highway 9 to get onto I-70 that way,” she advised. “Especially (since) a lot of folks who are heading up to go look at the fall colors are usually heading up into the Breckenridge area or further west.”
Sills-Trausch agreed.
“My family and I were in Breckenridge last weekend, and we noticed that the traffic was pretty cruddy, like, on I-70,” he recalled. “So, we decided to go south out of Breckenridge, and then over Kenosha Pass and through Bailey, and kind of through Morrison to get home. It was a little bit slower, but we had no traffic. It was more scenic.”
Floyd Hill was named after pioneer Merril Floyd, who operated a wagon road company in Clear Creek during the 1860s, and built a wagon road from Idaho Springs to Bergen.
The Floyd Hill project is scheduled for completion at the end of 2029; it’s believed to be CDOT’s largest construction effort since the 2001-2006 “T-Rex” project south of I-70 in Denver.
For more information about the Floyd Hill project, visit: https://www.codot.gov/projects/i70floydhill.
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