SUMMIT COUNTY — A multi-agency plan to alleviate congestion during closures of Interstate 70 through the mountains has been put in place by Eagle County, and the trickle down effect may impact Summit County.

Our Future Summit hosted a roundtable discussion in Frisco Thursday evening to gather public feedback about the plan that would begin stopping traffic in Dotsero when Vail Pass is closed.

“We developed this plan in Eagle County, but we realize that what happens on Vail Pass effects Summit,” said Colorado Department of Transportation engineer Peter Kozinski. “We’ve learned from our mistakes, and we don’t want to have communities choked up with traffic to the point where no one can move.”

Summit County already has an incident-management plan for closures of I-70, but the new staged closures in Vail could prompt county officials to re-configure the plan next year.

“These staged closure will really help in Summit so we don’t see the funnel effect in places like Silverthorne or Frisco,” said county emergency manager Joel Cochran. “People will now be more dispersed along the corridor when something causes a closure on Vail Pass.”

Truckers will be the first vehicles required to exit in the event of a planned road closure, and CDOT is constructing improvements at the Dotsero exit to accommodate up to 60 trucks.

Staged closures will also be put in effect at the Avon, Edwards, Wolcott and Eagle exits as parking capacity becomes full in communities farther east.

“This is really all about communication, and we can’t guarantee that it will always go smoothly,” Kozinski said. “But we have to start somewhere, because we know that we cannot continue to allow vehicles to dead end against a wall.”