Southbound Interstate 25 reopened just before noon Wednesday in downtown Denver after crews cleared a crash involving construction equipment, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
As of 11:45 a.m., southbound I-25 had reopened between exit 213 for Park Avenue and exit 212C for 20th Street, .
Earlier that morning, at about 4:30 a.m., a piece of construction equipment fell off a flatbed truck and landed on its side near the 20th Street off-ramp, according to a news release from state transportation officials.
“The equipment is called a shuttle buggy, which is used to transfer hot-mixed asphalt,” officials stated in the release. “This is very heavy, boxy equipment weighing about 80,000 pounds, which made it a challenge to move.”
Crews also had to clean hydraulic fluid from the roadway that leaked out of the shuttle buggy, CDOT officials said.
The incident caused more than an hour of delays for some drivers as the construction equipment closed all but one lane, according to CDOT. Southbound I-25 was fully closed at about 10 a.m. so crews could hoist the equipment upright and tow it from the highway.
Video and CDOT cameras in the area of the flipped construction equipment showed barely moving traffic stretching for miles behind the crash amid Wednesday morning rush hour.
CDOT officials said the incident happened as contract construction crews were beginning to clear the overnight work zone for the I-25 resurfacing project between Alameda and 44th avenues.
