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No amount of fresh pavement has been able to smooth over the stubborn — and dangerous — bump that keeps popping up on eastbound Interstate 70 between Silverthorne and the Eisenhower Tunnel for long.
But a more permanent fix is coming this summer, Colorado Department of Transportation officials say.
The $2.5-million solution will require crews to drill a series of holes into the mountain under the highway and will cause double lane closures in both directions through the summer and into the fall.
Work is set to begin in June.
During the project, CDOT will shift traffic first to the outside of the highway in both directions — using the right-hand shoulder as an extra lane — and will close the left and center lanes for work. Traffic will then be shifted toward the middle in both directions, using the left lane and shoulder while crews work in the right lanes.
Officials said there could be full closures of the highway, but that they would likely be done at night and traffic would be rerouted over Loveland Pass.
The bump is caused by land movement under the highway. As the earth shifts downhill, it disturbs the asphalt on the interstate above.
“This is a huge geo-technical issue,” CDOT program engineer Peter Kozinski told the Summit Daily in a previous interview. “The whole stretch in there is basically material that is unstable and is continually settling and slightly shifting. As a result, the highway built on top of it comes down with it.”
The bump has been smoothed over several times with new layers of asphalt — most recently in August — but repaving is only a temporary solution.
The long-term fix will require 70-80 holes, approximately 60 inches in diameter to be drilled under the highway extending 60 feet down. The holes will be filled with a light-weight material which will serve the dual purpose of providing a stable support system for the highway and filtering the heavier earth moving underneath so it has less impact on the road.
“If you stand your hand on end, it creates these little fingers that stand down to support the roadway on top,” Kozinski said. “It will settle a little bit, but we hope not as dramatically as what's taken place over the last year. We are enthusiastic that this type of fix will help mitigate the problem.”
The solution was implemented on westbound I-70 in 2010 and has been fairly effective. The roadway is still uneven on the westbound side, but it doesn't develop the same hard bump that re-emerges on the eastbound side.
“It's a real safety problem there,” assistant county manager Thad Noll said. “When people hit that bump when they're going uphill and it's snowy, it can really cause a vehicle to go out of it's normal line of travel.”
But a more permanent fix is coming this summer, Colorado Department of Transportation officials say.
The $2.5-million solution will require crews to drill a series of holes into the mountain under the highway and will cause double lane closures in both directions through the summer and into the fall.
Work is set to begin in June.
During the project, CDOT will shift traffic first to the outside of the highway in both directions — using the right-hand shoulder as an extra lane — and will close the left and center lanes for work. Traffic will then be shifted toward the middle in both directions, using the left lane and shoulder while crews work in the right lanes.
Officials said there could be full closures of the highway, but that they would likely be done at night and traffic would be rerouted over Loveland Pass.
The bump is caused by land movement under the highway. As the earth shifts downhill, it disturbs the asphalt on the interstate above.
“This is a huge geo-technical issue,” CDOT program engineer Peter Kozinski told the Summit Daily in a previous interview. “The whole stretch in there is basically material that is unstable and is continually settling and slightly shifting. As a result, the highway built on top of it comes down with it.”
The bump has been smoothed over several times with new layers of asphalt — most recently in August — but repaving is only a temporary solution.
The long-term fix will require 70-80 holes, approximately 60 inches in diameter to be drilled under the highway extending 60 feet down. The holes will be filled with a light-weight material which will serve the dual purpose of providing a stable support system for the highway and filtering the heavier earth moving underneath so it has less impact on the road.
“If you stand your hand on end, it creates these little fingers that stand down to support the roadway on top,” Kozinski said. “It will settle a little bit, but we hope not as dramatically as what's taken place over the last year. We are enthusiastic that this type of fix will help mitigate the problem.”
The solution was implemented on westbound I-70 in 2010 and has been fairly effective. The roadway is still uneven on the westbound side, but it doesn't develop the same hard bump that re-emerges on the eastbound side.
“It's a real safety problem there,” assistant county manager Thad Noll said. “When people hit that bump when they're going uphill and it's snowy, it can really cause a vehicle to go out of it's normal line of travel.”
