A $1.9 million upgrade of the downtown Glenwood Springs interchange at Interstate 70 begins Monday with funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

While work is beginning, there won’t be traffic impacts until after Labor Day. The contractor will try to avoid work during rush hour but otherwise motorists may encounter single-lane closures through Nov. 24.

The project will repair and resurface the CO 82 Grand Avenue overpass over I-70 and the Colorado River, widen the exit and entrance ramps bring heavy commuting traffic in from and back to West Glenwood and add capacity to the Sixth Street-Grand Avenue intersection that leads to the bridge, and where much of the I-70 traffic is heading.

View Glenwood Springs I-70 work in a larger map
Click on the blue balloons to get descriptions of the work.

Scott Contracting of Henderson will do the work.

Here’s how it will help commuting traffic from the west, the dominant direction:

The westbound I-70 exit dumps traffic into a short stub of Laurel Street, a block west of the Grand Avenue bridge, necessitating a left turn and two rights involving U.S. 6 for traffic to get over the rive and into downtown Glenwood. Traffic often backs up because of all the movements required.

The project will give morning westbounders a two-lane exit off I-70 to add capacity. Then from Sixth Avenue, which is also U.S. 6, Scott will expand the right turn to two lanes and put up a new signal, again increasing the carrying capacity of the turn.

On the evening return commute, the project will make the entrance to westbound I-70 a two-lane ramp.

Finally, conduit and fiber optic cable will be installed to connect the traffic signals along the corridor so they can be timed to move traffic more efficiently.

The bridge, built in 1953 and widened in 1969, is in good structural condition but is considered functionally obsolete because its narrow width restricts traffic capacity. It is 677 feet long, but only 37.5 feet wide, leaving only nine feet for each lane width. The optimum lane width is 12 feet.

This project will repair steel bridge rail, curb and curb rail, and portions of the concrete deck where potholes are forming, replace the bridge’s expansion joints, then repave the entire length with asphalt.

The total cost including design and planning is just over $2.5 million, with that amount coming from ARRA stimulus funds and $162,000 from federal Congestion Relief Funds.

While completion is scheduled for Nov. 24, the contract includes an incentive for early completion of $2,150 per day up to $114,000, to help reduce traffic impacts.