Weather wasn’t much of a factor, but travel in the high country Saturday was snarled just the same.
One snowstorm complicated Interstate 70 travel Friday and another storm accompanied by plunging temperatures could do the same Sunday night. But on Saturday, it was heavy holiday congestion that slowed down drivers — in both directions.
And the Colorado Department of Transportation says to expect more of the same all week as Front Range residents who are off work or school flock to the mountains.
“The more we can spread out the peak (hours), the less time you’ll be on the highway,” CDOT spokeswoman Amy Ford said.
On Saturday, holiday travelers aiming to outsmart the usual traffic congestion by leaving Denver mid-afternoon were in for a rude awakening.
Ski traffic in the morning didn’t let up, and CDOT at 4:15 p.m. crawling speeds on westbound Interstate 70 beginning at Floyd Hill.
Eastbound, the return trip to Denver was the usual Saturday story, taking an extra hour or more to get there from Silverthorne. About 4 p.m., that it had started safety metering from Silverthorne to the Eisenhower Tunnel to stagger traffic flow.
That was before an accident caused a full closure of I-70 in both directions at Silver Plume for a half-hour.
A short time later, all eastbound lanes were blocked by another accident that quickly was cleared.
Elsewhere, CDOT on Saturday afternoon reopened the ramp from westbound C-470 to eastbound I-70 after a five-hour closure caused by a tractor-trailer rollover and another accident.
In the coming week, CDOT says to expect heavy mountain traffic in both directions of I-70 daily, based on previous years’ holiday patterns. They expect the heaviest eastbound return traffic to begin on New Year’s Day, peaking from 4 to 6 p.m.
Avoid driving back to Denver on I-70 next weekend, when hour-plus delays are likely much of both days. Check current travel conditions and speeds by calling 511, downloading CDOT’s mobile phone app or visiting cotrip.org.
As for the coming snow, the National Weather Service says frigid cold will keep it light in the Denver metro area. After a forecast high near 35 degrees Sunday, Denver’s high temperatures should reach only 11 degrees on Monday and 6 degrees on Tuesday.
But overnight lows are forecast to sink into the negative single digits.
“Looks like anywhere from 3½ to 6 inches” of snow between Sunday night and Tuesday night, meteorologist Bob Koopmeiners said.
Powder days are possible for skiers and snowboarders, he said, with 6 to 16 inches possible through Tuesday in the mountains.
