Crews to Close I-70 in De Beque Canyon Aug. 22 for Rockfall Mitigation

MESA COUNTY—From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, CDOT will close both directions of I-70 to perform rockfall mitigation near Exit 49 (the Colorado Highway 65 Interchange). Vehicle closure points will be eastbound at Exit 47 (Island Acres State Park) and westbound at Exit 62 (De Beque).

"We encourage motorists to stop in places along the I-70 corridor to wait out the closure in order to be near services," said CDOT Project Engineer Paul Granahan. "There is not a lot of storage for commercial vehicles in De Beque so anyone traveling westbound may want to stop before the closure point," he said. "Motorists traveling eastbound have more options with Grand Junction being the larger city they arrive at before heading into De Beque Canyon."

In preparation for this operation, intermittent traffic stops will occur on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to mobilize equipment and prepare the area.

As part of the mitigation, crews will be rock scaling, drilling and blasting to remove several sections of rock in an effort to protect the safety of motorists and prevent road damage or unexpected closures that could be caused by a natural rockfall incident.

United Companies is the prime contractor for this $4.3M project.

Travel Impacts

Vehicle closure points will be eastbound at Exit 47 (Island Acres State Park) and westbound at Exit 62 (De Beque).

• Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 20-21

• Eastbound and westbound right lane closure

• Eastbound and westbound 20-minute traffic holds with delays

• The project will be in operation from 6:00 am - 6 p.m.

• Wednesday, Aug. 22  FULL CLOSURE

• Eastbound and westbound FULL closure of I-70

• Closure will begin at 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

• Eastbound and westbound 20-minute traffic holds with delays

• Thursday and Friday, Aug. 23-24

• East and westbound right-lane closure

• Eastbound and westbound 20-minute traffic holds with delays