I am not from the mountain West but it seems like losing I-70 for an indefinite amount of time is a huge deal in an area where there are few other options. My first thought was of Keith and our friends at Flyin'Miata. I feel like this would be like losing the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan (or worse)
It’s an approximately 4 hour detour up through steamboat now. Commerce will get through and deliveries will adjust I’m sure, but will the tourists still come? That will have a large impact on the area.
See also: Highway 1 on the California coast. Aging infrastructure is gonna keep biting us in the collective tuckas.
It's not the first time Glenwood's been taken out over the years - usually by individual rocks the size of buses - but it's the worst for a while and it just won't stop. It's not aging infrastructure. There's a fire scar that's been delivering mudslide after mudslide over the past month and this time it really did the job. The detour, as noted, is hours. There just aren't all that many ways through the mountains.
It's our connection to the east, basically. The shelves at stores have been showing the results for a while, some stuff just isn't getting through. We still have our westward connection, but a coworker is leaving for Deal's Gap tomorrow and he's trying to decide between taking the detour to Denver or running south through Albuquerque.
Janel will probably have all the details on the reconstruction, I don't think it's out to bid yet but this is a high priority fix. The funny thing is that the detour goes right through another major construction project in a different county so they've had to shut that down while the detour is active. Hard to plan for that eventuality when you're setting your timelines!
Yeah, long detour to get around that. I'm sure it's the States largest priority right now, I-70 is the only East-West interstate through Colorado
KyAllroad said:See also: Highway 1 on the California coast. Aging infrastructure is gonna keep biting us in the collective tuckas.
H1 really had little to do with aging infrastructure either. Landslides are not terribly uncommon there (especially when you get little rain, then a lot which is pretty much the weather pattern) and as above fires can make it much worse. I am not sure specifically if there was a fire there but I know another spot much farther south off the 1 came down on a neighborhood a number of years ago as the result of a fire scar.
I am not sure The H1 closure hade a huge affect on tourism either. It was in a rather remote area on a road (especially in that area) that can't handle a lot of traffic anyway. The 101 (a bit inland) is a much busier road and it's still not that busy (still very rural).
mechanicalmeanderings said:It’s an approximately 4 hour detour up through steamboat now. Commerce will get through and deliveries will adjust I’m sure, but will the tourists still come?
I think the Colorado jeep clubs would look at that as a challenge.
wow, I had no idea! I drove that section at least 2x in the last year.
It's a beautiful place to drive usually. Especially for an interstate.
I can't help but think of all the reconstruction projects in asia that occur after disasters like this. I'm always amazed at our quickly the roads become whole again.
Keith Tanner said:The shelves at stores have been showing the results for a while, some stuff just isn't getting through.
Let me know if I need to FedEx you some toilet paper.
Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:mechanicalmeanderings said:It’s an approximately 4 hour detour up through steamboat now. Commerce will get through and deliveries will adjust I’m sure, but will the tourists still come?
I think the Colorado jeep clubs would look at that as a challenge.
Very true!!
iansane said:I can't help but think of all the reconstruction projects in asia that occur after disasters like this. I'm always amazed at our quickly the roads become whole again.
The speed at which they rebuild some of the freeways in Los Angeles after the Northridge earthquake was insane compared to "normal". It very much can be done. They incentivized them by paying them more the quicker they finished. Probably not a plan that works in every case, but when you consider the costs of major roads being down, it almost certainly makes sense.
Stampie said:Keith Tanner said:The shelves at stores have been showing the results for a while, some stuff just isn't getting through.
Let me know if I need to FedEx you some toilet paper.
I don't think he's going to need any. He said "stuff just isn't getting through."
mechanicalmeanderings said:Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:mechanicalmeanderings said:It’s an approximately 4 hour detour up through steamboat now. Commerce will get through and deliveries will adjust I’m sure, but will the tourists still come?
I think the Colorado jeep clubs would look at that as a challenge.
Very true!!
I'm pretty sure that half of the troopers involved in the road closure are there to tell the Jeepers "No. Seriously, no. N.O. Turn around."
Everyone should watch the drone videos in the link in the first post. It's amazing. It's hard to see how we'll prevent it from happening again.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Flying cars, duh. Don't need roads then.
It's all over Colorado. As Keith said above the central route through the state (route 50) is closed during the week except for a 1-hour window at noon, then open on weekends. As a result of the I-70 slides, route 50 is now open full time (its project has been suspended until I-70 is cleared). On top of all that, 550 between Ouray and Silverton will be having the full closures during the week except for one hour for four weeks spread out two in August and two in September, which will really hurt our tourist industry here. From Ouray you won't be able to access any of the major Jeep trails during the construction except for Imogene Pass and Yankee Boy, and to get here you will have to come around the long way over Lizard Head Pass, or down from Junction, if that's accessible. We're kind of getting cut off here. We needed the rain really, really badly, though, so at least in our area around Ouray County we're grateful. The timing on the road construction on 550 sucks, though.
We also had a major slide on 550 just south of Ouray last week, but I think it's open now. 145 over by Telluride was closed for a while on Saturday, too.
But - boy is it green around here! Last year we literally got no rain in the summer. So far I've had 4.5 inches at my house inthe last month, which is a lot for here.
In reply to Jim Pettengill :
If you're in Ouray with a Jeep, you can get to Silverton easily enough :) Bottom half of Engineer and then through Animas Forks...
We're not getting enough of the rain here, it's just missing us. We've had 0.60" over the past month for a total of 2.64" for the year. Average is 4.80". And yes, it rains so little here that we measure it in hundredths of an inch.
You Colorado mountain boys need to get Alaskan sport utilities.
When they start the road construction, the blockage will be just south of Ouray, before the Engineer trailhead, MM87.5 - 92. Sucks. If I-70 is cleared by then and 50 is back to closure, we'll be kind of hard for the casual tourist to reach. Right now it's no problem, ever form of lodging is booked solid, and I'm retired, so I'm good, but most of the residents here depend on the summer tourist industry. Just shows, Mother Nature is really in charge, we have to adapt.
In reply to Appleseed :
What's the service ceiling on a Super Cub? 
I seem to remember standing in a parking lot in one of the passes west of Ft. Collins at roughly 10,000 elevation and the tops were another 2,000 or so above me.
It's obvious there should have been a tunnel to allow the slide to move past the road without stopping traffic.
They must have fought a few slides just building that stretch of road.
Build a roof over it then dig the road out under the roof.
Per news reports, the governor estimates "a few days to a few weeks" before they can reopen to one lane each direction.
In reply to bentwrench :
A slide shed like the ones you see in BC may be the end result here, that might work. But it wasn't a spot where there were a lot of slides before AFAIK. The problem is that a fire took out all the ground cover up top, which allowed the slides to start, and then they just kept coming and dug themselves a trench. The slides weren't a problem until they started and then they just made it easier for more. It's the geologic equivalent of a flat-spotted tire :)
I know there have been slides in Glenwood Canyon before, but I don't ever remember hearing about sequential closures like this in the past 20 years. Usually it's some big rock comes falling out of the sky and makes a hole.
I will keep my ear to the ground about bids to rebuild. That'll probably be better information than politicians. There will be some significant incentives to get it done ASAP.
What is the pass between Aspen and Leadville? Independence? It was relatively easy on a street bike, as I recall.
In reply to wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) :
That's the one. Twisty. It has length and CMV restrictions, which you KNOW are not being observed at this time because that is one of the detours. So I'd expect at any given time there could be a 30' toyhauler stuck halfway around a hairpin. Hwy 82 from Glenwood to Aspen sees high traffic numbers at shift change time because nobody who works in Aspen can afford to live there and nobody in Aspen works. So it wouldn't be my first choice.
You'll need to log in to post.
