BRECKENRIDGE — The Colorado Department of Transportation is inviting industry experts to offer suggestions on how to ease traffic through the Twin Tunnels near Idaho Springs on Interstate 70.
Twelve industry experts, each paid $1,000, will meet with local officials today to discuss the problem, and the team will have four days to come up with possible solutions.
“This may be an opportunity to get a new look at this,” said Tony DeVito, CDOT Region 1 director.
Clear Creek County officials call the Twin Tunnels a “pinch point” for I-70 traffic, slowing traffic between Idaho Springs and Floyd Hill.
To ease overall I-70 traffic, CDOT has proposed using shoulder space for a third eastbound lane on peak-travel days. That would be effective only to the Twin Tunnels, where there’s no extra shoulder space and traffic would go back to two lanes in each direction.
“We’re hoping that there’s a unified vision of . . . what’s going to make sense, so we can start exploring some of these concepts,” said CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman. “We know that something has got to give on I-70. It’s just very difficult balancing so many ideas of what that is.”
