Part of U.S. 36 buckled Sunday night in Broomfield, shutting the westbound highway down overnight, according to the police department.
Westbound U.S. 36 reopened at mile marker 46.8 early Monday morning, according to a 4:25 a.m. post on X from the .
The Colorado Department of Transportation believes the buckling was heat-related after several days of high and near-record temperatures, agency spokesperson Tamara Rollison said.
“Temporary emergency repairs were made to the pavement so the closed two lanes could reopen to traffic as soon as possible,” Rollison said in an email. “Permanent repairs will follow.”
The emergency repairs happened between 4 p.m. Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday, she said.
The last catastrophic failure on U.S. 36 happened nearly six years ago, when a “slope failure” caused an eastbound overpass of the highway to collapse near Church Ranch Boulevard in Westminster on July 12, 2019.
The collapse shut down the eastbound lanes for nearly three months as construction crews repaired the overpass’s embankment and retaining wall.
Investigators said the collapse could have been fueled by design flaws in the retaining wall’s drainage system and heavy rains during construction.
The Sunday night buckling happened about three miles from the section of U.S. 36 that collapsed in 2019, and the two issues were unrelated, Rollison said.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
