CDOT outlines multi‑year Floyd Hill construction schedule, traffic and blasting impacts

Colorado Department of Transportation officials presented an update Tuesday to the Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners on the multi‑year Floyd Hill reconstruction project on Interstate 70, describing construction milestones through 2029, frequent rock blasting and steps CDOT is taking to limit traffic impacts and protect wildlife and trail users.

The presentation, delivered by Kirk Kianka, CDOT Floyd Hill project director, and Tamara Rollison, CDOT Region 1 communications manager, said construction began in July 2023 and is being delivered in three primary sections — east, central and west — with different completion milestones for each. Kianka told commissioners the project is “under construction for a little over 18 months” and that work on the heavy central section will continue into mid‑2029.

CDOT gave a timeline of major milestones: the west section is expected to be complete at the end of 2027; the eastbound I‑70 alignment is scheduled for the end of 2028; weather‑dependent paving, landscaping and frontage‑road work are expected to extend some finishing work into 2029. Kianka said the project has interim milestones that will open travel benefits earlier than the final completion date.

Why it matters: CDOT said the project aims to improve travel‑time reliability, relieve a westbound bottleneck on the descent of Floyd Hill, upgrade aging bridges and roadway geometry, improve multimodal connections and add resilience by creating a new frontage‑road alternate route that ties into County Road 314. Commissioners were told the project will add a full‑time toll express lane in the westbound direction, extend an eastbound on‑ramp so merging vehicles have more distance to reach highway speed, and reconstruct the Greenway Trail to 10‑foot concrete ADA…