GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Upgrading Cottonwood Pass between Garfield and Eagle counties to serve as a year-round alternate route during Interstate 70 closures through Glenwood Canyon would likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, county officials estimate.
A near weeklong closure of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon due to a major rock slide, has resurrected talk, at least on street corners and in social media circles, about improving the backcountry route.
“We’re talking a couple hundred million dollars to widen it for (interstate type) traffic,” Garfield County Commissioner John Martin said. Even just improving the route to paved county road standards would cost Garfield County from $20 million to $30 million, he said, plus snow removal costs.
In 2010, Eagle County estimated costs to improve its portion of the pass at $45 million.
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