Expect More Traffic for Thanksgiving Weekend

November 21, 2012 - Central Eastern Colorado/CDOT Region 1 - DENVER – The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is reminding drivers to anticipate heavier than normal traffic for the next five days as people travel for the Thanksgiving weekend and crowd the larger shopping areas.

“We wish all Coloradoans a happy and safe Thanksgiving weekend,” said CDOT Executive Director Don Hunt. “We’re doing what we can to minimize traffic impacts since we know there’s going to be a lot of people out traveling the state’s highways the next five days.”

To reduce potential delays, most CDOT construction projects will be suspended statewide by Wednesday afternoon. Projects will resume their regular schedules on Monday, November 26. Projects located in rural or low-traffic areas may be operating Friday.

Traffic on Interstate 70 west typically increases on Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving, with westbound traffic expected to be heavier than normal through Friday, primarily from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. Heavier than normal traffic should be anticipated on eastbound I-70 Saturday and Sunday, especially between Vail and the Denver area from late morning until late afternoon.

I-25 traffic also is expected to be higher than normal along the Front Range this weekend, especially due to the number of large shopping areas located near the corridor.

The vehicles counts at the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnels in 2011 were:

	Westbound	Eastbound	Total
Wednesday, November 23, 2011	23,147	17,427	40,574
Thursday, November 24, 2011	13,656	10,318	23,974
Friday, November 25, 2011	17,923	14,691	32,614
Saturday, November 26, 2011	15,451	21,513	36,964
Sunday, November 27, 2011	14,350	23,222	37,572
Total	84,527	87,171	171,698

Thanksgiving generally is not one of the higher holiday travel weekends. The highest Thanksgiving count of 201,887 vehicles was set in 2006, with 48,521 traveling I-70 the day before the holiday that year.

Colorado highway information is available at all times on the cotrip.org website or by calling 511. Updates also are offered via e-mail. Please visit www.coloradodot.info and click on the cell-phone icon in the upper right-hand corner. The link takes you to a list of subscription items. Updates also are available via Twitter @coloradodot and on CDOT’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/coloradodot.

CDOT also has launched a new smartphone application to provide drivers with easier access to I-70 traveler information. It includes travel speeds and times, road conditions, incidents, road work; and feeds from CDOT's closed-circuit television cameras and alerts. Text CDOT to 25827 or download CDOT Mobile from your App store.