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I-70 Floyd Hill project: 1-mile viaduct, express lane and frontage road planned; construction through 2029
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Summary
The I-70 Floyd Hill project will realign an 8-mile stretch of I-70 between Evergreen and Idaho Springs, add an express lane and a 1-mile, 120-foot viaduct, deliver frontage-road and trail upgrades, require rock scaling and blasting in places, and aims for full completion in 2029.
An unidentified presenter at the briefing outlined a major overhaul of the I-70 Mountain corridor, saying the I-70 Floyd Hill project will realign eight miles of highway between west of Evergreen and east of Idaho Springs to improve safety and operations. The plan calls for widening westbound I-70, adding an express lane to improve travel-time reliability, and constructing a one-mile, 120-foot viaduct on westbound I-70.
The presenter described several operational changes intended to reduce crashes and delays. "This will straighten roadway curves, which will improve motorist safety and sight distance," the presenter said. The project also includes a climbing lane from US 6 onto eastbound I-70 to aid slow-moving vehicles, a new westbound off-ramp to US 6, and relocation of the left-merge US 6 on-ramp to the Hidden Valley/Central City Parkway interchange to improve merging operations.
Planned work will place both directions of I-70 on new alignments where the highway braids at the bottom of Floyd Hill and will shift the roadway south into the hillside above Clear Creek to remove sharp curves. To the north of I-70, officials plan a roughly two-mile frontage road extending US 6 west to the Hidden Valley/Central City Parkway interchange; the presenter said the frontage road is intended to improve resiliency and emergency response.
The project will also address active recreation and local connections. The presenter said it will "deliver improvements to the Clear Creek Greenway Trail, including a new concrete surface between US 6 and the Hidden Valley interchanges." Traffic will return to the existing alignment just east of the Hidden Valley interchange, and a new roundabout is planned at the Hidden Valley/Central City Parkway connection to improve operations.
The presenter summarized scope and construction constraints: "In total, the I-70 Floyd Hill project will construct 10 bridges of varying complexity." He added that rock scaling and blasting are required in several locations to accommodate the roadway realignment, and that the design includes multiple environmental mitigations to enhance wildlife connectivity and protect air and water quality.
Timeline and next steps: westbound I-70 is scheduled to be in its new alignment by 2027, eastbound I-70 by 2028, and the entire project is planned for completion in 2029. The briefing did not include details about project funding sources, permitting milestones, contractor selections, or public outreach plans; those items were not specified in the presentation.
