{"id":1380947,"date":"2018-12-05T17:28:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T00:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/vail-pass-highway-expansion-isnt-funded-but-the-work-is-being-planned-now\/"},"modified":"2018-12-05T17:28:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T00:28:00","slug":"vail-pass-highway-expansion-isnt-funded-but-the-work-is-being-planned-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/local-news\/vail-pass-highway-expansion-isnt-funded-but-the-work-is-being-planned-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail Pass highway expansion isn\u2019t funded, but the work is being planned now"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Miller<\/a><\/span> VAIL \u2014 The west side of Vail Pass on Interstate 70 is the most-closed and most accident-riddled stretch of that highway as it goes through the Rockies. Making the highway safer will take a lot of money, money that isn’t available for the foreseeable future.
\nDespite the lack of funding, Colorado Department of Transportation officials have been working on plans to expand and modify the highway. State and local officials will hold an open house to talk about those plans from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 13, at Donovan Pavilion in Vail.
\nWhile there’s a lot of planning to do \u2014 and the best cost estimate right now is “really expensive” \u2014 the basics include adding a lane to both eastbound and westbound lanes of the highway. That’s roughly 20 new lane-miles of road.
\nThe Vail Town Council at its Tuesday, Dec. 4, evening meeting heard an overview of the project from John Kronholm, the state’s project engineer, Vail Public Works Director Greg Hall and longtime resident Dick Cleveland, a member of the committee advising state officials.
\nIn addition to the new lanes, Kronholm told council members that some of the existing curves in the road would be “flattened,” making lanes more gently curved.<\/p>\n

Same road, different speeds
\nKronholm said an extra lane in each direction could help with several problems that cause accidents and road closures. A third lane could help with some of the speed differentials between slow-moving heavy trucks and faster-moving passenger vehicles. Those different speeds contribute to a number of accidents, Kronholm said.
\nA third lane, along with shoulders, would also help the Colorado State Patrol keep traffic moving following accidents. Kronholm noted when an accident closes one lane, officers often close the other to provide room to work safely.
\nMuch of the U.S. interstate system \u2014 including Vail Pass \u2014 was built in an era when not much attention was paid to the environment surrounding those highways. Things are far different today.
\nIn the case of Vail Pass, that means accounting for noise, recreation paths, wildlife and the health of Black Gore Creek, which runs adjacent to much of the roadway.
\nThe health of Gore Creek is going to be a big issue, since it’s a substantial part of the water supply for Vail and the upper valley.
\nIn a telephone interview after Tuesday’s meeting, Eagle River Watershed Council Director Holy Loff said the prospect of an essentially new stretch of I-70 along Vail Pass presents a number of concerns, but also opportunities.
\nGiven the era in which the existing roadway was designed and built, Loff noted that the safety and environmental improvements in the road have been “retrofitted” to the highway.
\n“The opportunity is that by planning ahead, knowing what we know now, we can have an I-70 that collects (runoff and sand) and is planned from the beginning to do that.”<\/p>\n

On the day there’s money \u2026
\nWhile there’s no money for construction at the moment, transportation department spokeswoman Tracy Trulove said it’s essential to have plans …read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

Via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VAIL \u2014 The west side of Vail Pass on Interstate 70 is the most-closed and most accident-riddled stretch of that highway as it goes through the Rockies. Making the highway safer will take a lot of money, money that isn’t available for the foreseeable future.
\nDespite the lack of funding, Colorado Department of Transportation officials have been working on plans to expand and modify the highway. State and local officials will hold an open house to talk about those plans from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 13, at Donovan Pavilion in Vail.
\nWhile there’s a lot of planning to do \u2014 and the best cost estimate right now is “really expensive” \u2014 the basics include adding a lane to both eastbound and westbound lanes of the highway. That’s roughly 20 new lane-miles of road.
\nThe Vail Town Council at its Tuesday, Dec. 4, evening meeting heard an overview of the project from John Kronholm, the state’s project engineer, Vail Public Works Director Greg Hall and longtime resident Dick Cleveland, a member of the committee advising state officials.
\nIn addition to the new lanes, Kronholm told council members that some of the existing curves in the road would be “flattened,” making lanes more gently curved.<\/p>\n

Same road, different speeds
\nKronholm said an extra lane in each direction could help with several problems that cause accidents and road closures. A third lane could help with some of the speed differentials between slow-moving heavy trucks and faster-moving passenger vehicles. Those different speeds contribute to a number of accidents, Kronholm said.
\nA third lane, along with shoulders, would also help the Colorado State Patrol keep traffic moving following accidents. Kronholm noted when an accident closes one lane, officers often close the other to provide room to work safely.
\nMuch of the U.S. interstate system \u2014 including Vail Pass \u2014 was built in an era when not much attention was paid to the environment surrounding those highways. Things are far different today.
\nIn the case of Vail Pass, that means accounting for noise, recreation paths, wildlife and the health of Black Gore Creek, which runs adjacent to much of the roadway.
\nThe health of Gore Creek is going to be a big issue, since it’s a substantial part of the water supply for Vail and the upper valley.
\nIn a telephone interview after Tuesday’s meeting, Eagle River Watershed Council Director Holy Loff said the prospect of an essentially new stretch of I-70 along Vail Pass presents a number of concerns, but also opportunities.
\nGiven the era in which the existing roadway was designed and built, Loff noted that the safety and environmental improvements in the road have been “retrofitted” to the highway.
\n“The opportunity is that by planning ahead, knowing what we know now, we can have an I-70 that collects (runoff and sand) and is planned from the beginning to do that.”<\/p>\n

On the day there’s money \u2026
\nWhile there’s no money for construction at the moment, transportation department spokeswoman Tracy Trulove said it’s essential to have plans …read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1380947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-23 08:14:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KKCH - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1380947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1380947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1380947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1380947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kkch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1380947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}