John Scarffe, Central City.    Posters on easels of photographs, maps, charts and information surrounded the inside of the large meeting room at the Elks Lodge, 1600 Colorado Blvd., in Idaho Springs at 5 p.m. on September 13, 2018. A large map covering the entire I-70 Westbound Peak Period Shoulder Lane Project (PPSL) covered two long sets of tables.

Representatives of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and members of the project planning team set up the room for a presentation on the I-70 Westbound Peak Period Shoulder Lane Project (PPSL). By 5:30 p.m., when the presentation started, the room was packed with interested residents.

A project team has been studying a proposal to build an Express Lane on a 12-mile stretch of westbound I-70 in the mountains between Empire Junction and the Veterans Memorial Tunnel, similar to the I-70 Mountain Express Lane, according to the CDOT website. The team plans to complete the study — a National Environmental Policy Act process (NEPA) — in fall 2018.

Construction is planned to begin in late spring or summer 2019, assuming funding is identified, according to the website. The project proposes adding a 12-mile tolled westbound peak-period shoulder lane between the Veterans Memorial Tunnels, mile point 243, and the U.S. Highway 40 and I-70 interchange (exit 232).

Steve Harrelson, a member of the project planning team, told the crowd that this is the fourth public meeting on the project, which is now moving into final design, but team members are not done asking for input. How can we make construction go smoother?

The project corridor is a mirror image of the East Bound project completed a couple of years ago, Harrelson said. The project will cover Veterans Memorial Tunnel to Empire. It will immensely help traffic to move more smoothly.

Colorado has a population of 5.6 million, and in 2017, the state grew by 77,059, the size of Greeley, Harrelson said. Since the population of the state has grown, so has congestion on I-70. The duration of congestion on a Sunday afternoon has expanded to five or six hours.

In 2011, the State completed a 50-year plan with a menu of improvements, Harrelson said. The plan includes transit, safety and other improvements to increase capacity, improve accessibility and mobility and decrease congestion.

The project has both a leadership team and a technical team and is a collaborative effort and vision. The technical team includes representatives from emergency services, law enforcement, contractors and others. “It’s the industry, a broad-based coalition,” Harrelson said.

The purpose of the project is to get I-70 traffic to improve on weekends during the peak periods. The current congestion causes safety problems and accidents, Harrelson said.

Traffic becomes gridlocked, and they can’t get emergency services in or out.

For this project, they will be trying to maximize the use of existing infrastructure. They learned from the eastbound project that they were shy on the distance between the barriers and mediums. They will also widen the middle land from 11 feet to 12 feet to make it more comfortable to drive, Harrelson said.

The major elements include rock fall mitigation, resurfacing the westbound lanes and slightly widening them in select areas, Harrelson said. The team proposes I-70 be resurfaced and widened by small amounts in select areas to convert the shoulder into a tolled travel lane during peak periods.

This would create three travel lanes during peak periods and the addition of seven new emergency pull-outs for emergencies and law enforcement, according to the website. The two general-purpose lanes would remain open and free to all travelers at all times.

During non-peak periods, the PPSL would be closed to traffic and function as an extra-wide shoulder. Similar to the eastbound I-70 Mountain Express Lane, the westbound PPSL would use transponders and license plate tolling.

Pricing would be adjusted to achieve the desired lane use and provide drivers with a reliable travel time option through the corridor during peak periods. The operational days and times would coincide with peak travel periods on weekends and holidays.

Interchange work to improve pedestrian access and sight distance problems will also be included, Harrelson said. The project has a short life span to the year 2035.

“It will buy us 15 or 20 years before we do other alternatives like transit. It’s a step process, and this is one of the steps,” Harrelson said.

The eastbound project improved travel times, decreased backup and congestion, Harrelson said. Crashes are being cleared quickly and frontage road congestion alleviated.

“It has worked better than we even hoped,” Harrelson said. The average trip has been improved by 21 minutes.

The project team is now wrapping up the Tier 2 NEPA process and is looking at social, economic and environmental resources, Harrelson said. Activities you may encounter during construction include noise, heavy machinery, lights, dust, lane shifts and vibration.

In areas where noise will not impact residents, they will work at night but will complete quiet aspects of the work, Harrelson said. The team will have a need for detours, and meetings to talk about traffic mitigation plans and hours in which to avoid work, such as rush hour. The team will have a daily hotline updated every day, Harrelson said.

Work requiring one lane will be done mainly at night, and they will provide emergency access at all times by providing a shoulder of adequate width.
They will be trying to eliminate work on the weekends and during special events.

The team will complete NEPA and final designs with construction beginning next summer. Contractors like to pave when it’s at least 50 degrees, so work will continue in the summer of 2020, and then they will test the equipment. They would like to have it open for ski season in 2020.

Three other related projects will be completed during the process but done under separate contract. The new Fall River Road Bridge will cross Clear Creek connecting Stanley Road to the Fall River Road interchange on I-70, according to the meeting handout.

County Road 314 will be improved from the Game Check Station Trailhead to exit 241, according to the handout. CDOT is working closely with the Clear Creek Greenway Authority to plan for future phases of the greenway project.

For more information or to send a comment, email cdot_wbppslproject@state.co.us or go to the website at https://www.codot.gov/projects/i-70-westbound-peak-period-shoulder-lane.

(Originally published in the September 20, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)